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University  of  California. 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrOsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/earlyreligiousedOOeliorich 


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.       AMERICAN     '^ 
(         UNITARIAN 
ASSOCIATION 

RELIGI0US\BJDnCAD£.€i5N 


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CONSIDERED  AS 


THE  DIVINELY  APPOINTED  WAY 


REGENERATE    LIFE. 


WILLIAM    G.    ELIO'I, 

PABTOB  OF  THE  OHURCH  OF  THB  sbsSIAH,  ST.  LOUIS. 


"Feed  mj  Itkt^^^^^^R-^^^ 

"^    OP*   THE 


VEESITY 


^^po'ii^^ 


BOSTON: 
AMEKICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION. 

1881. 


EG 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

Crosby,  Nichols,  and  Company, 

JQ  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  DiBtrict  Court  of  the  District  of  Maasachusetti 


TO 

MY    MOTHER, 

THE  ONLY   SURVIVING  PARENT 

OF   CHILDREN  WHOSE  DEBT  OF   GRATITUDE, 

FOR    HER     UNWEARIED     CARE     IN     LEADING     THEM 

BY  CHRISTIAN  PRECEPT  AND   EXAMPLE 

TO   THE    CHRISTIAN    FAITH, 

CAN    NEVER    BE    ADEQUATELY    EXPRESSED, 

THIS    ESSAY 

O  AFFEOTIONATM.T  IKSCBIBSB. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAQB 

THE    REGENERATE   LIFE 1 


CHAPTER    II. 
RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 21 

CHAPTER    III. 
THE  parent's  duty 53 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SCHOOL    EDUCATION 77 

CHAPTER    V. 
THE    DIVINE    METHOD 95 

CHAPTER     VI 
PARENTAL   RESPONSIBILITY Ill 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE    REGENERATE    LIFE. 


In  the  following  Essay,  I  propose  to  speak 
of  the  Religious  Education  of  the  Young, 
considered  as  the  divinely  appointed  means  of 
Christian  Regeneration.  My  object  is  to  call 
the  attention  of  parents  to  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities which  are  too  apt  to  be  neglected, 
and  by  neglect  of  which  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  their  children  is  sometimes  sacrificed. 

But,  to  avoid  misapprehension,  a  few  words 
may  first  be  said  concerning  the  spiritual  or 
regenerate  life  of  which  we  speak.  What  is 
Christian  Regeneration?  Is  it  a  reality,  or 
only  a  figure  of  speech  to  which  no  definite 
meaning  needs  to  be  given  ?  Is  it  something 
that  every  one  must,  sooner  or  later,  experi- 
ence, in  the  formation  of  the  Christian  char- 
1 


Z  THE   REGENERATE    LIFE. 

acter,  or  is  it  only  a  matter  of  historical  inter- 
est,— the  change  from  one  religion  to  another, 
as  from  Judaism  or  Heathenism  to  Christian- 
ity ?  Can  it  properly  be  called  a  change  of 
heart,  or  is  it  anything  more  than  that  general 
improvement  in  manners  and  morals,  the  de- 
sirableness of  which  every  one  admits,  but  to 
which  no  such  radical  expression  can,  without 
exaggeration,  be  applied?  According  to  the 
answer  given  to  these  questions,  the  whole 
subject  of  early  religious  education  assumes 
greater  or  less  practical  importance. 

"  K  any  man  is  in  Christ,"  says  the  Apostle 
Paul,  "  he  is  a  new  creature.  Old  things  are 
passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  have  become 
new."  (2  Cor.  v.  17.)  We  ask  attention  to 
the  plainness  and  strength  of  this  language, — 
"  a  new  creature."  But,  strong  as  the  words 
are,  they  do  not  convey  the  full  meaning  of 
the  original,  which  is,  ''  a  new  creation." 
That  is  to  say,  he  who  is  in  Christ  is  creat- 
ed again ;  and,  lest  the  words  may  fail  to  be 
apprehended,  the  idea  is   further   expressed, 


THE    REGENERATE    LIFE.  O 

"  old  things  have  passed  away  and  all  things 
have  become  new." 

Nor  is  this  the  only  instance  in  which  the 
Christian  regeneration  is  thus  described.  It 
is  the  common  Scriptural  mode  of  expression. 
The  state  of  the  regenerate  is  declared  to  be 
the  absolute  renunciation  of  one  life  and  the 
assumption  of  another.  As  St.  Paul  again 
said,  "I  am  crucified  w4th  Christ,"  —  put  to 
death  with  him  ;  "  nevertheless  I  live,  yet 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  The  word 
"  regeneration  "  indicates  the  same  thing,  for 
it  is,  literally,  a  new  or  renewed  birth.  And 
thus  the  Saviour  himself  spoke,  when  he  said, 
"Except  a  man  be  born  again,"  —  or  born 
from  above,  by  a  higher,  creative,  spiritual 
birth, — "  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Whatever  we  may  make  of  such  words, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  of  their  containing  a 
leading  Scriptural  doctrine.  They  are  so  often 
repeated,  and  in  such  variety  of  form  but  uni- 
ty of  substance,  that  we  cannot  keep  them 
out  of  sight  if  we  would.  After  all  our  in- 
genuity in  explaining  them  away,  as  having 


ft  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

only  a  t^rnporary  application,  or  whatever 
other  method  may  be  taken  to  avoid  their 
force,  they  return  upon  us  and  refuse  to  be 
explained  away  or  disregarded.  They  con- 
tain the  vital  strength  and  efficacy  of  our  re- 
ligion. That  we  are  capable  of  the  regenerate 
life  is  our  divine  birthright,  and  its  necessity 
to  us  as  the  means  of  reconciliation  with  God 
is  the  divine  law  under  which,  as  spiritual  be- 
ings, we  live.  K  there  is  any  doctrine  of  the 
Bible  which  is  abstractly  and  absolutely  stated 
as  a  universal  truth,  that  which  we  now  con- 
sider is  so  expressed ;  namely,  that  the  Chris- 
tian or  spiritual  life  is  essentially  different 
from  the  worldly  or  natural  life,  and  that,  by 
becoming  Christians,  we  undergo  a  real  and 
radical  change.  Not,  of  course,  that  we  are 
literally  created  over  again,  for  this  would  be 
the  same  literal  perversion  of  words  into  which 
Nicodemus  fell.  But  it  is  evidently  a  real  and 
radical  change  of  the  heart  and  life  of  which 
tHe  Scripture  speaks,  —  a  change  which  affects 
us  to  such  a  degree  that  the  words  "  new  birth  " 
and  "new  creation,'*' altnough  figurative,  are 


THE   REGENERATE   LIFE.  0 

strictly  appropriate,  and  the  most  intelligible 
that  can  be  used  in  its  description.  There  is, 
undoubtedly,  a  Christian  doctrine  of  regen- 
eration which  is  intended  to  be  received  as  a 
plain,  practical  truth,  of  universal  application. 

Yet  there  is  in  the  minds  of  some  persons 
a  prejudice  against  it,  and  it  is  sometimes 
broadly  denied.  We  have  heard  a  Christian 
minister  speak  of  "  those  who  still  believe  in 
the  doctrine  of  regeneration."  As  a  spiritual 
experience  it  is  called  imaginary,  and  as  a 
statement  of  truth  it  is  ridiculed  as  being  un- 
philosophical  and  absurd.  Particularly  do 
men  of  highly  educated  minds  turn  from  it 
with  distrust  or  contempt,  as  if  it  were  the 
preaching  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  But, 
by  so  treating  the  subject,  we  think  that  they 
go  as  far  towards  one  extreme  as  the  most 
ignorant  and  superstitious  go  towards  the 
other.  To  deny  the  doctrine  of  regeneration 
and  to  remain  a  Christian,  indicates  either  the 
misuse  of  words  or  an  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  Scripture. 

The  prejudice  to  which  we  refer  is  not, 
1* 


THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 


however,  without  foundation.  Although  not 
properly  directed  against  the  Scriptural  doc- 
trine, it  has  been  very  naturally  excited  by  the 
unscriptural  mode  in  which  the  doctrine  is 
often  preached.  Sudden,  miraculous  conver- 
sion, wrought  by  divine  power,  independently 
of  the  human  will,  is  the  form  in  which  it  is 
sometimes  presented;  —  a  conversion,  namely, 
by  which  the  sinner  of  yesterday  is  the  saint 
of  to-day ;  a  conversion  by  which  the  laws  of 
the  mind  are  annulled,  the  principles  of  hu- 
man nature  subverted,  and  as  great  a  miracle 
wrought  in  the  soul  as  by  raising  the  dead  to 
life.  We  do  not  wonder  that  well-educated 
and  practical  men  resist  such  a  doctrine  as 
this.  It  is  false  in  theory^  for  it  would  be  the 
destruction  of  responsibleness  and  freedom. 
It  would  make  us  the  blind  and  helpless  in- 
struments, or  rather  subjects,  of  divine  power, 
instead  of  being  the  willing  servants  of  God 
both  in  seeking  after  and  in  accomplishing 
the  Christian  life.  It  is  equally  false  in  prac- 
tice,  for  those  who  are  most  sure  of  having 
been  themselves  thus  miraculously  converted, 


THE   REGENERATE    LIFE.  7 

and  who  are  recognized  under  the  usual  tests 
as  genuine  converts,  do  yet  manifestly  retain 
the  same  individuality,  and  are  practically  the 
same  men  they  were  before.  No  miracle 
seems  to  have  been  wrought  in  them,  no  de- 
gree of  goodness  suddenly  attained,  or  which 
we  may  not  account  for  by  ordinary  causes 
and  the  use  of  prdinary  "  Gospel  means"  of 
improvement.  Sometimes,  together  with  the 
reformation  of  outward  life,  a  corresponding 
degree  of  spiritual  pride  creeps  in,  from  the 
persuasion  that  they  are  the  special  recipients 
of  divine  favor ;  by  which  their  simplicity  of 
character  is  lost,  and  almost  as  much  harm 
done  in  one  way  as  good  in  the  other.  When- 
ever a  man  begins  to  "  thank  God  that  he  is 
not  as  other  men  are,  or  even  as  this  publi- 
can," he  is  in  great  danger. 

In  expressing  belief,  therefore,  in  regenera- 
tion, we  do  not  speak  of  a  sudden  work. 
There  is  but  one  sense  in  which  sudden  con- 
version is  possible,  which  is,  that  a  beginning 
may  be,  and  often  is,  abruptly  or  suddenly 
made.     The  thoughtless  man  may  be  unex- 


O  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

pectedly  brought  to  reflect,  and  tjie  sinner  to 
repent.  There  may  be,  and  not  unfrequently 
is,  a  turning-point  of  character, — an  epoch 
which  is  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the 
life.  In  this  sense,  no  one  will  dispute  the 
fact;  but  we  must  remember  that,  after  the 
direction  of  life  is  changed,  the  whole  prog- 
ress of  life  is  to  be  accomplished.  Nor  do 
we  teach  miraculous  conversion,  except  in  that 
sense  which  belongs  to  God's  providential 
dealing  with  us,  and  to  the  unseen,  unob- 
served influences  of  God's  spirit,  which  work 
together  with  our  spirits,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  our  own  minds.  Upon  this 
divine  help,  which  is  at  once  natural  and  su- 
pernatural, we  are  always  dependent.  But 
we  cannot  separate  it,  as  a  miraculous  inter- 
ference, from  our  own  thoughts  and  affections, 
our  own  aspirations  and  prayers.  For,  "as 
the  wind  bio  wet  h  where  it  listeth,  and  we 
hear  the  sound  thereof,  but  cannot  tell  whence 
it  cometh  nor  whither  it  goeth,  so  is  every  one 
who  is  born  of  the  spirit."  It  is  at  once  arro- 
gant and  dangerous  to  claim  direct  and  extra- 


THE   REGENERATE    LIFE. 


ordinary  guidance.  It  is  virtually  to  claim 
inspiration,  and  that  which  begins  in  humility 
ends  in  pride. 

But  we  still  hold  to  the  plain  and  practical 
meaning  of  the  Scriptural  words,  "  Whosoever 
is  in  Christ  is  a  new  creature."  There  is  not 
only  a  seeming  difference,  but  an  essential, 
radical,  and  thorough  difference,  between  the 
religious  and  the  worldly  life.  By  becoming 
Christians  we  undergo  a  change,  not  only  of 
habit,  nor  chiefly  of  habit,  but  chiefly  a  change 
of  heart ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  affection  and 
of  inward  character.  For  nothing  else  than 
this  can  be  reasonably  intended  when  a  change 
of  heart  is  spoken  of;  —  the  same  experience 
which  is  variously  expressed,  in  the  fifty-first 
Psalm,  by  the  words,  "  Create  within  me  a 
clean  heart,"  and  then  by  the  equivalent 
words,  "  Renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

Every  one  must  feel  that  his  real  or  inward 
character  is  not  always  indicated  by  his  ordi- 
nary outward  conduct.  "  We  know  men  by 
their  fruits,"  but  we  judge  of  the  fruit,  not  by 
its  looks,  b7it  its  taste  and  wholesome  quali- 


10  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

ties.  A  man's  real  character  can  be  told  only 
by  knowing  his  leading  motives,  his  ruling 
passion  or  affection,  the  prevailing  purpose 
of  his  life.  Of  course,  therefore,  it  can  be 
known  but  imperfectly  to  any  one  but  him- 
self and  his  Maker ;  and  wisdom  should  keep 
us  from  too  positive  judgments  concerning 
each  other.  But  it  is  none  the  less  evident 
that,  if  the  ruling  principle  be  changed,  the 
whole  man  is  changed.  Not  suddenly,  in- 
deed, and  perhaps  not  quickly,  for  the  new 
element  may  take  a  good  while  to  work  itself 
into  the  affections,  so  as  to  modify  the  whole 
character.  But  a  complete  change  is  then  be- 
gun, which  requires  only  time  for  its  working. 
For  example,  let  the  spendthrift  be  taught 
that  the  possession  of  money,  and  not  its  fool- 
ish expenditure,  commands  the  respect  of  the 
world,  and  let  the  love  of  money  begin  to  take 
precedence  of  the  love  of  pleasure.  How 
quickly  and  how  thoroughly  is  he  changed ! 
How  different  are  his  enjoyments,  and  what  a 
complete  revolution  is  wrought  in  his  whole 
character!     He   is  a   new  man,  so   that  his 


THE   REGENERATE   LIFE.  11 

friends  scarcely  know  him.  And  yet  this  is, 
comparatively  speaking,  a  superficial  change. 
His  inward  character  may  be  just  the  same 
that  it  was  before.  It  is  only  a  change  from 
one  kind  of  selfishness  to  another;  and  his 
lavish  generosity  in  the  first  stage,  and  his 
avaricious  meanness  in  the  second,  are  but 
different  modes  of  the  same  self-seeking. 
The  change,  therefore,  however  great  seem- 
ingly, is  not  like  that  which  is  wrought  by 
substituting  kind  and  generous  affections  for 
those  which  are  narrow  and  selfish. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  greater  change, 
take  one  who  is  at  the  head  of  a  family,  the 
husband  and  father,  who,  from  motives  of  re- 
spectability, provides  for  his  household,  but 
who  consults  chiefly  his  own  comfort,  to 
which  everything  must  bend,  and  who,  by 
the  indulgence  of  a  tyrannical  will,  makes 
himself  feared  more  than  loved.  What  a 
thorough  reformation  would  be  wrought  in 
him,  and  how  would  the  warm  rays  of  sun- 
light stream  through  his  house,  if  you  could 
cure  him  of  that  selfishness  and  petty  tyranny, 


12  THE   EEGENERATE   LIPB. 

by  leading  him  to  think  of  others  instead  of 
himself!  Teach  him  to  love  his  wife  and 
children  for  their  own  sake,  and  not  merely 
because  they  belong  to  him.  Teach  him  to 
find  his  happiness  in  their  happiness,  instead 
of  making  their  enjoyment  depend  upon  his 
selfish  whims.  We  acknowledge  that  this  is 
a  very  difficult  change  to  effect,  but,  if  once 
wrought,  its  greatness  will  not  be  denied.  A 
lew  feeling  pervades  the  household,  and  ev- 
erything said  and  done  has  a  new  and  better 
expression.  Yet  even  here  you  may  not  have 
reached  the  inmost  character  of  all.  The 
Scriptural  change  of  heart  in  such  a  man  may 
not  yet  have  been  accomplished.  His  affec- 
tions have  become  genial,  instead  of  contract- 
<id,  he  is  kind  and  considerate,  instead  of  self- 
ish and  exacting,  which  is  a  great  change ; 
but  the  spiritual  life  may  yet  be  unknown  to 
him;  his  relation  to  those  around  him  may 
bt  <3tn  earthly,  present  relation  only ;  and  the 
law  of  righteousness,  the  Christian  law  of 
self-consecration,  by  submission  to  which  we 
seek  to  present  our  bodies  a  living  sacrifice 


THE   BEGENERATE   LIFE.  13 

to  God,  may  be  yet  entirely  unknown  or  dis- 
regarded. 

We  may  partly  see,  therefore,  how  radical 
is  the  change  which  the  Christian  religion  pro- 
poses, and  how  thoroughly  it  must  pervade 
the  whole  life  in  the  process  of  its  accomplish- 
ment. It  substitutes  the  principle  of  right  for 
that  of  expediency.  It  makes  the  will  of  God 
our  law,  instead  of  our  own  changing  desires, 
or  the  customs  of  the  world.  Instead  of  self- 
ishness and  self-seeking,  whatever  form  they 
may  take,  it  teaches  self-denial,  and,  it  may 
be,  self-sacrifice.  It  requires  us  to  live  for 
others,  not  only  by  separate  acts  of  kindness, 
but  by  going  about  to  do  good,  and  by  making 
the  ordinary  occupations  of  life  the  means  of 
usefulness.  It  teaches  us  to  regard  everything 
in  this  world  chiefly  with  a  view  to  its  uses 
in  the  formation  of  that  higher,  spiritual  life, 
which  begins  here,  to  be  perfected  in  heaven. 
It  goes,  therefore,  to  the  depths  of  the  soul, 
and  changes  the  purpose  of  its  existence.  It 
changes  the  meaning  of  life  and  the  end  to  be 
accomplished.     It  requires  the  change  of  our 


14  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

ruling  affections,  and  by  infusing  a  new  spirit 
into  everything  done,  it  effectually  changes 
the  whole  conduct  and  conversation.  Even 
that  which  seems  to  be  the  same,  such  as  the 
common  routine  of  life,  is  really  changed,  be- 
cause its  purpose  and  meaning  are  changed. 
If  it  be  but  the  working  for  one's  daily  bread, 
the  religious  spirit  supervenes  to  make  it  the 
working  for  the  bread  of  eternal  life.  Without 
being  what  is  commonly  called  a  miraculous 
change,  therefore,  it  is  a  complete,  and,  I  be- 
lieve, a  divinely-wrought  change  from  that 
which  the  Scriptures  term  the  natural  and 
worldly  state  of  mind.  For  whatever  views 
we  may  take  of  the  metaphysical  disputes 
about  the  origin  and  explanation  of  sin,  w^e 
must  certainly  admit  that  the  human  heart 
does  not  fashion  itself,  in  its  natural  develop- 
ment and  under  the  ordinary  influences  of  the 
world,  according  to  the  heavenly  image.  To 
become  a  Christian  is,  therefore,  as  the  Scrip- 
tures teach,  to  undergo  a  change,  and  being 
such  a  change  as  we  have  indicated,  it  is,  phil- 
osophically and  fairly  speaking,  not  less  than 


THE   REGENERATE   LIFE.  15 

Scripturally  speaking,  a  change  of  everything, 
"  He  who  is  in  Christ  is  a  new  creation.  Old 
things  have  passed  away,  and  all  things  are 
become  new." 

But  how  absurd  it  is,  let  me  again  say,  to 
speak  of  it  as  a  renovation  suddenly  and  com- 
pletely wrought !  We  might  rather  say,  and 
I  here  express  it  as  my  own  deliberate  and 
earnest  conviction,  that  the  work  of  regenera- 
tion is  seldom  effectually  accomplished,  unless 
when  it  begins  by  the  Christian  education  of 
childhood,  and  goes  on  under  the  exercise  of 
Christian  influences  through  the  whole  life. 
Nor  is  the  whole  life  too  long  for  the  result  to 
be  attained. 

We  do  not  deny  the  reality  of  that  change 
which  may  come  in  mature  years,  to  those 
who  have  led  worldly  and  irreligious  lives. 
But  we  do  say,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  say,  that  the  Christian  regeneration 
is  better  and  more  perfectly  wi'ought  in  those 
who  learn  "  to  remember  their  Creator  in  the 
days  of  their  youth."  When  the  religious 
education  is  made  to  keep  pace  with  the  in- 


16  THE    REGENERATE   LIFE. 

tellectual ;  when  the  mind  grows  by  its  un- 
conscious and  early  development  into  Chris- 
tian habits  of  thought ;  when  the  lesson  of 
self-control  is  so  early  learned  that  it  becomes 
like  the  alphabet  of  life,  with  which  all  the 
subsequent  history  of  life  may  be  written ;  — 
then  does  the  Christian  regeneration  become 
most  perfect.  The  innocence  of  childhood,  its 
simplicity,  its  gentleness,  its  confiding  humil- 
ity, are  thus  retained,  whUe  the  active  princi- 
ple of  Christian  virtue  is  gradually  introduced, 
to  work  like  leaven  in  the  character,  and  bring 
it,  by  a  progress  so  natural  that  we  almost 
hesitate  to  call  it  a  change,  up  to  the  Chris- 
tian standard.  "We  may  not  be  able  to  mark 
the  time  of  conscious  self-consecration  to  God, 
nor  to  observe  the  steps  by  which  the  will  is 
brought  towards  it ;  but  the  result  is  none  the 
less  sure,  the  change  effected  none  the  less 
real.  We  may  dispute  about  words,  but  such 
development  and  growth,  like  the  springing 
up  of  seed  from  the  ground,  are  in  themselves 
a  new  creation. 

As  the  complete  ignorance  of  infancy  is  to 


THE   REGENERATE   LIFE.  17 

the  advanced  attainments  of  science,  and  as 
the  infant's  mind  to  the  mature  mind  of  the 
philosopher,  so  is  the  child's  innocence,  at  the 
best,  to  the  mature  excellence  of  Christian 
goodness.  No  change  can  be  greater,  al- 
though, if  it  comes  by  the  process  of  early- 
education,  it  is  less  marked  than  a  smaller 
change  would  be  in  later  life,  when  the  tran- 
sition from  ignorance  to  knowledge,  or  from 
selfish  to  Christian  principles,  is  more  easily 
observed.  But  commonly  speaking,  if  you 
wish  to  make  a  learned  or  wise  man,  you 
must  begin  by  educating  the  child.  And 
equally,  if  you  would  do  the  work  of  Chris- 
tian regeneration  well,  you  must  bring  children 
to  the  familiar  presence  of  Jesus,  that  he  may 
lay  his  hands  upon  them  and  bless  them.  We 
shall  thus  save  them  from  the  wrongs  done 
to  the  soul,  by  which  its  beauty  is  so  often 
spoiled,  and  from  the  stains  which  the  tears  of 
repentance  can  scarcely  wash  out.  We  shall 
bring  them  ic  that  mature  strength  of  Chris- 
tian principle  which  is  the  renewal  of  the  Di- 

•    2* 


18  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

vine  image,  the  only  real  humanity  of  the  im- 
mortal soul. 

These  truths  therefore  seem  to  me  sure  and 
undeniable :  — 

First,  there  is  an  essential,  radical  difference 
between  the  worldly  and  selfish  life  and  that 
which  the  Christian  religion  demands. 

Secondly,  the  Christian  life  does  not  come 
of  itself,  by  the  natural  development  of  the 
mind  and  character,  any  more  than  science 
and  learning  come  of  their  own  accord. 

Thirdly,  the  Christian  life  is  the  result  and 
working  of  Christian  principles,  under  the  Di- 
vine impulse  and  guidance,  which  modify  the 
whole  character  and  conduct,  so  that  the 
meaning  and  tendency  of  life  are  entirely 
changed. 

Lastly,  and  as  the  result  and  consequence 
of  the  foregoing,  the  sooner  these  Christian 
principles  are  introduced,  so  as  to  become 
the  nutriment  by  which  the  soul  receives  its 
growth,  the  better  and  the  more  effectually 
will  the  work  be  done.  Our  households  must 
be  filled  with  Christian  children,  or  our  church- 


THE   RE  GEN] 


es  will  never  be  filled  with  Christian  men  and 
women. 

Would  it  not  be  a  new  creation  ?  Is  not 
the  Christian  child,  to  whose  lips  the  words 
of  prayer  are  familiar,  whose  impulses  are 
already  restrained  by  the  fear  of  God,  whose 
standard  of  demeanor  is  the  character  of 
Christ,  and  who  has  already  chosen  the  path 
of  Christian  virtue  and  truth,  —  is  not  such  a 
one  essentially  a  different  creature  from  what 
he  would  have  been  under  worldly  influences  ? 
The  Christian  graces  are  never  so  beautiful  as 
when  they  are  thus  formed  in  the  unstained 
childhood  of  the  soul. 

Such  are  the  views  of  the  Scripture  doc- 
trine of  regeneration  which  are  our  starting- 
point  in  this  Essay.  As  seekers  of  the  regen- 
erate life,  we  need  to  be  patient  with  our- 
selves, and  with  continued,  earnest  striving, 
having  adopted  the  Christian  principles  of  life, 
to  endeavor,  little  by  little,  but  with  a  radical 
working,  to  make  them  pervade  the  whole 
character  and  conduct,  until  they  become  the 
spirit  in  which  we  live.     But  in  our  care  of 


20  THE   REGENERATE   LIFE. 

the  young,  the  children  whom  God  commits 
to  our  keeping,  we  have  a  different  duty.  It 
is  to  educate  them  to  be  Christians.  It  is  our 
duty  to  bring  them  up  at  the  feet  of  Jesus, 
and  thus  to  educate  them,  perhaps  not  for 
earth,  but  certainly  for  heaven. 


CHAPTER    II. 

RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

If  my  views  concerning  Christian  regen- 
aration  are  correct,  it  is  a  work  which  should 
oegin  in  early  childhood,  instead  of  being  de- 
layed, as  it  generally  is,  until  the  character  is 
already  formed.  Its  difficulty  becomes  greater 
with  every  advancing  year,  and  confirmed 
habits  of  worldliness  and  self-indulgence  re- 
quire so  great  exertion  for  their  change,  that 
it  is  seldom  attempted,  still  more  seldom  ac- 
complished. "We  should  therefore  educate 
our  children  to  be  Christians.  Their  earliest 
training  should  be  Christian  training,  and 
their  submission  to  the  law  of  Christ,  both  in 
faith  and  conduct,  should  be  so  gently  instilled 
as  to  become  like  an  unconscious  or  instinc- 
tive direction  of  the  whole  character.      This 


462  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

would  be  Christian  nurture,  the  true  religious 
education ;  —  a  work  of  great  difficulty,  I  ad- 
mit, and  implying  on  the  part  of  parents  and 
teachers  higher  attainments  than  are  usually 
possessed.  But  the  duty  does  not  the  less 
exist,  and  to  recognize  it  as  a  duty  is  at  least 
one  step  towards  its  accomplishment.  I  fear 
that,  generally  speaking,  it  is  neither  recog- 
nized nor  acknowledged. 

The  proper  and  rational  ideas  of  religious 
education  are  not  generally  admitted,  and  are 
very  often  distinctly  denied.  School  educa- 
tion is  everywhere  insisted  upon,  and  all  need- 
ful provision  for  the  development  of  the  intel- 
lect and  for  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  is 
made.  The  manners  are  formed  with  care, 
and  the  common  moralities  of  life  duly  en- 
forced. But  Christian  education,  which  is  the 
inculcation  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, — the  Gos- 
pel education,  by  which  not  only  a  moral,  but 
a  religious  character  is  formed,  —  is  a  work 
which  many  refuse  to  undertake. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the 
majority  of  young  persons,  even  in  Christian 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  23 

families,  are  permitted  to  grow  up  without 
any  decided  religious  education  at  all.  They 
come  to  what  are  called  the  years  of  dis- 
cretion, and  enter  upon  all  the  serious  duties 
of  life,  almost  without  knowing  whether  they 
believe  in  Christ  or  not.  They  have  not 
learned  to  think  of  religion  as  a  personal  in- 
terest, and  their  only  natural  and  easy  prog- 
ress is  one  which  leads  them  further  from  the 
religious  life  every  day.  For  if  we  do  not 
educate  our  children  to  be  Christians,  they 
will  be  educated  by  worldly  influences  away 
from  Christianity.  And  this  is  the  actual  re- 
sult. In  Christian  congregations,  how  small 
a  part  of  the  young,  of  those,  I  mean,  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  years  of  age,  have  either 
assumed  the  Christian  name,  or  distinctly  ad- 
mitted to  themselves  their  obligation  to  do  so ! 
In  religious  belief  and  personal  religious  char- 
acter, how  many  of  them  occupy  a  negative 
position !  They  do  not  know  their  own 
thoughts,  and  have  not  yet  formed  a  definite 
religious  purpose.  They  have  not  yet  chosen 
their  principles  of  conduct,  at  a  time  when 


24  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

they  would  be  ashamed  not  to  have  chosen 
their  worldly  pursuit,  and  are  already  am- 
bitious of  worldly  influence. 

Such  is  the  actual  state  of  things  in  the 
Christian  Church.  False  theories  of  religion 
have  prevailed  to  such  an  extent,  that  it  has 
relied  upon  revivals  and  conversions,  instead  of 
Christian  education,  as  the  means  of  growth. 
It  has  not  expected  the  young  to  be  Chris- 
tians, and  is  yet  astonished  that  when  older 
they  do  not  become  so.  Therefore  it  goes  on 
struggling  in  unequal  contest  with  the  powers 
of  evil,  and,  instead  of  converting  the  world  to 
Christ,  cannot  guard  its  own  ranks  from  fre- 
quent desertion.  Children  of  Christian  par- 
ents fail  to  become  Christians,  and  the  major- 
ity of  those  who  worship  before  the  Christian 
altar  never  come  to  conclusions  sufficiently 
definite  to  justify  them  in  the  distinct  assump- 
tion of  the  Christian  name.  They  are  still 
waiting,  and  perhaps  need  to  wait,  for  the 
Christian  change.  The  work  which  ought  to 
have  been  done  in  childhood  and  youth  is  still 
delayed,  and  they  have  not  yet  quite  made  up 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  25 

their  minds  whether  God  or  Mammon  should 
be  served. 

Against  such  a  state  of  things  we  protest, 
as  being  equally  unchristian  and  wrong.  The 
root  of  the  evil  lies  far  back,  in  the  early  edu- 
cation of  childhood  and  the  training  of  youth. 
Children  need  to  be  directed  and  formed  in 
their  religious  character,  as  carefully  as  in  the 
intellectual.  They  need  to  be  taught  ^religion 
as  much  as  to  be  taught  science.  In  one 
word,  we  must  educate  them  to  be  Christians, 
or  there  is  great  danger  of  their  never  becom- 
ing Christians  at  all. 

But  in  the  statement  of  this  proposition  we 
are  met  by  objections  from  two  opposite 
sources.  First,  there  are  objections  of  indif- 
ference and  mistaken  liberality ;  and  secondly, 
of  superstition  and  mistaken  doctrine.  Both 
of  these  need  to  be  considered. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  said  about  leaving 
the  minds  of  children  unbiassed ;  —  that  upon 
all  religious  subjects  they  should  be  left  free, 
so  that,  upon  arriving  at  years  of  discretion, 

3 


26  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

they  may  choose  for  themselves,  and  decide 
upon  all  disputed  questions  without  prejudice. 
But  what  does  this  really  mean?  Is  it  the 
language  of  those  who  are  themselves  deeply 
interested,  and  whose  religious  convictions 
are  deep  and  earnest?  Is  it  not  rather  the 
language  of  men  who  care  very  little  about 
the  subjects  of  which  they  speak,  —  who  have 
scarcely  any  positive  convictions  of  their 
own,  and  are  therefore  indifferent  about  the 
opinions  of  others  ?  This  is  commonly  the 
case.  It  sounds  like  liberality ;  it  is  indiffer- 
ence, i 

Religion,  if  regarded  at  all  as  a  personal  in- 
terest, becomes  the  chief  interest  in  life,  and 
we  cannot  help  loving  that  which  we  not  only 
believe,  but  to  which  we  look  for  our  daily 
comfort  and  strength.  We  may  begin  by 
conceding  that  every  form  of  Christianity  has 
enough  truth  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  and 
yet  that  which  we  have  ourselves  embraced 
as  our  own  must  be  to  us  the  dearest,  and  we 
cannot  help  desiring  that  those  whom  we 
most  dearly  love  should  think  and  feel  with 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  27 

US.  Even  if  it  were  a  matter  of  absolute  in- 
difference what  a  man  believes,  it  would  be  so 
only  as  an  abstract  proposition.  Our  social  en- 
joyments spring  from  community  of  thought, 
of  feeling,  and  of  interest.  With  our  thoughts 
turned  in  different  directions  upon  religious 
subjects,  and  with  different  religious  sympa- 
thies, it  is  difficult  —  I  do  not  say  impossible, 
but  difficult  —  to  retain  the  cordial  and  inti- 
mate communion  one  with  another  upon 
which  domestic  happiness  depends.  This  one 
divided  interest  affects  all  other  interests,  and 
there  is  constant  danger  that  feelings  of  alien- 
ation and  of  almost  angry  impatience  may  be 
aroused. 

Such  is  the  common  practical  working,  as 
everybody  knows.  However  closely  a  family 
may  be  united,  difference  of  religious  opinion 
and  religious  sympathies  may  easily  become 
a  disturbing  element,  the  introduction  of  which 
is  therefore  to  be  accounted  a  danger  and  a 
misfortune.  ^  To  guard  against  it,  is  no  proof 
of  bigotry  or  of  illiberal  feeling.  It  is  but  the 
natural  desire  to  sympathize  most  closely  with 


28  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

those  whom  we  love  most  dearly.i  The  fact 
being  as  it  is,  and  human  sympathies  working 
as  they  do,  the  husband  ought  to  desire  to 
hold  the  same  religion  with  his  wife,  and  the 
wife  with  her  husband.  It  is  a  misfortune 
when  they  cannot  worship  at  the  same  altar, 
and  a  severer  trial  of  affection  than  they  are 
at  first  willing  to  believe.  Between  parents 
and  children  the  same  principle  holds  true, 
and  therefore  the  natural  desire  and  duty  of 
the  parent  unitedly  lead  him  to  use  all  proper 
means  to  train  his  children  in  the  same  relig- 
ious sympathies  with  himself.  In  fact,  he 
must  do  so,  or  neglect  their  religious  educa- 
tion altogether.  If  he  directs  them  at  all,  it 
must  be  according  to  his  own  convictions  of 
truth,  and  he  cannot  help  feeling  regret  when 
they  come  to  conclusions  essentially  different 
from  his  own.  His  duty  towards  them  re- 
quires that  he  should  place  them  under  what 
he  believes  to  be  the  best  influences,  and 
educate  them  in  what  he  believes  to  be  the 
truth.  If  he  cares  anything  about  religion, 
he   cannot   be  indifferent   as   to   their   train- 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  29 

ing,  but  will  seek  to  direct  them  in  the  right 
way.  Or  if  he  cares  nothing  about  the  truth 
for  its  own  sake,  and  thinks  that  one  relig- 
ion is,  in  itself  considered,  as  good  as  anoth- 
er, practical  good-sense  will  teach  him  that 
one  religion  is  commonly  enough  for  one 
household,  and  that  to  agree  in  religious  opin- 
ion is  one  of  the  strongest  bonds  of  domestic 
love. 

7^  It  is  said,  that,  by  thus  directing  the  young 
in  their  religious  education,  we  should  train 
them  to  be  narrow-minded  and  bigoted.  Even 
that  would  be  better  than  the  blank  and  nega- 
tive indifference  in  which  they  are  so  often 
permitted  to  grow  up,  which  is  almost  sure  to 
end  in  scepticism  or  unbelief,  and  by  which 
the  young  are  left  without  the  restraints  of 
religious  principle  through  the  whole  forming 
period  of  life.^  But  the  assertion  is  founded  in 
mistake.  The  most  prejudiced  persons  are 
often  those  who  have  had  no  specific  instruc- 
tion, and  who  are  ignorant  as  to  what  they 
believe  and  what  they  reject.  The  most  big- 
oted are  often  the  least  instructed,  and  mo^t 


30  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

unable  to  tell   the   grounds   on   which   their 
opinions  rest. 

We  may  teach  children  to  be  fair-minded 
and  open  to  conviction,  while  we  instruct  them 
in  what  we  believe  true.  We  need  not  claim 
absolute  authority  over  them,  nor  insist  upon 
our  own  opinions  as  if  there  were  no  possibil- 
ity of  mistake.  We  may  seek  to  develop  their 
minds  and  help  them  to  think  for  themselves, 
while  giving  them  the  benefit  of  our  own 
more  mature  thoughts.  We  may  guard  them 
against  unjust  prejudices,  and  teach  them  to 
look  with  respect  upon  those  from  whom  we 
differ.  In  a  word,  our  object  should  be,  not  to 
make  bigoted  sectarians,  but  practical  Chris- 
tians ;  not  to  fill  their  minds  with  dogmatic 
theology  which  they  cannot  understand,  but 
to  lead  them,  as  their  minds  are  developed,  to 
a  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  life  and 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  obedience  to 
whom  they  may  become  Christians.  By  such 
instruction  there  is  no  danger  of  their  becom- 
ing bigoted.  They  gradually  learn  to  form 
their  own   opinions,  and  always  with  a  su- 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  81 

preme  regard  to  truth.  Above  all,  they  will 
have  a  positive  religious  training,  both  of 
mind  and  heart,  which  will  almost  certainly 
result  in  a  practical  Christian  character,  —  the 
great  end  to  be  attained. 

Unhappily,  those  who  recognize  the  duty  of 
giving  a  religious  education  to  their  children 
are  apt  to  begin  in  the  wrong  way,  and  work 
with  a  wrong  spirit.  They  begin  with  dog- 
matic theology,  and  before  the  child  can  un- 
derstand the  Lord's  Prayer,  he  is  made  to 
learn  by  rote  creeds  and  formulas  of  doctrine,  . 
about  which  the  most  learned  men  have  al- 
ways disputed,  and  will  always  continue  to 
dispute.  They  are  taught  to  answer  the  most 
difficult  questions  about  predestination  and 
election,  about  the  nature  of  God  and  of 
Christ,  in  words  no  more  intelligible  to  them 
than  Greek  or  Hebrew,  and  are  at  the  same  time 
told  that  any  deviation  from  those  answers 
or  any  departure  from  the  doctrines  taught 
would  be  attended  with  the  utmost  peril  to 
their  souls.  This  is  indeed  a  training  to  make 
them  bigoted  and  narrow-minded.    They  learn 


82  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

to  feel  that  it  is  dangerous  to  think  for  them- 
selves, and  that  in  religion  it  is  not  necessary 
to  think  at  all.  They  look  with  horror  upon 
those  who  differ  from  them,  and,  being  abso- 
lutely assured  that  they  are  themselves  right, 
do  not  hesitate  even  without  examination  to 
condemn  all  others  as  wrong.  Their  minds 
are  not  open  to  conviction,  for  it  has  always 
been  impressed  upon  them  that  a  change  of 
opinion  would  be  rebellion  against  God. 

For  those  who  grow  up  under  such  influ- 
ences, there  is  commonly  but  one  alternative. 
Either  they  will  retain  their  religious  educa- 
tion at  the  expense  of  fairness  of  mind,  liber- 
ality of  feeling,  and  freedom  of  thought, — 
thus  becoming  defenders  of  their  own  sect 
rather  than  lovers  of  truth,  and  seeking  to  do 
God  service  by  the  heartiness  of  religious 
hatred,  —  that  is  to  say,  becoming  sectarians 
and  bigots,  instead  of  Christians ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  being  disgusted  with  the  con- 
tracted ideas  which  have  been  forced  upon 
them  as  religion,  they  are  gradually  weaned 
from  religion  itself,  sceptical  of  all  religious 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  33 

truth,  rebellious  against  all  religious  authority, 
and  disposed  to  treat  with  contempt  all  re- 
ligious institutions. 

Such  is  the  explanation  of  a  great  deal  of 
the  scepticism  and  infidelity  prevalent  in  the 
Christian  world.  It  is  the  reaction  of  the  mind 
against  the  arbitrary  instruction  of  early  years, 
and  is  sometimes  a  generous  protest  against 
intellectual  bondage.  It  is  not  always  the 
proof  of  a  depraved  heart,  nor  is  it  in  its  com- 
mencement generally  so.  At  first,  it  is  gener- 
ally no  more  than  the  honest  refusal  to  believe 
that  which  does  not  seem  to  be  true,  a  refusal 
to  submit  to  an  authority  which  is  evidently 
not  divine.  If  it  stopped  there,  it  would  be 
well,  and  the  Christian  faith  might  yet  be  re- 
tained. But  the  mind,  once  released  from  its 
moorings,  drifts  away,  it  knows  not  where. 
The  scepticism  of  an  unbelieving  heart  fol- 
lows. The  early  restraints  of  religion  are  for- 
gotten, and  the  habitual  practice  of  sin  makes 
a  return  to  faith  difficult,  if  not  impossible. 
Such  is  the  natural  and  frequent  result  of 
wrong   religious    education.      Thousands    of 


84  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

those  who  are  now  the  enemies  of  Christ,  oi 
at  least  who  refuse  to  be  his  friends,  can  dis- 
tinctly trace  the  misfortune  and  the  sin  to  the 
irrational  treatment  of  their  childhood,  to  the 
stern  and  arbitrary  instructions  to  which,  in 
childhood,  they  were  required  to  submit.    \ 

We  do  not  wonder,  therefore,  that,  in  view 
of  such  severe  and  unwise  training,  objections 
are  sometimes  made  to  all  religious  education. 
But  the  opposite  extreme  is  equally  unwise 
and  unphilosophical.  There  are  some  who 
will  not  allow  their  children  to  enter  a  Sunday 
school,  nor  encourage  them  to  attend  at  church, 
and  who  refuse  to  converse  with  them  upon 
religious  subjects,  or  to  give  them  books  from 
which  religious  instruction  can  be  gained, 
through  this  exaggerated  fear  that  some  un- 
due bias  may  be  given  to  their  minds,  or  some 
undue  restraint  placed  upon  the^  subsequent 
freedom  of  their  thoughts.  Such  persons  are 
committing,  I  fear,  as  great  and  serious  a  mis- 
take as  that  which  they  avoid.  The  vacancy 
of  mind  and  almost  complete  ignorance  upon 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTIOIS.  85 

religious  subjects  in  which  their  children  grow 
up  is  extremely  unfavorable  to  their  subse- 
quent exercise  of  sound  judgment.  The  child 
craves  religious  instruction,  and  will  find  it  of 
some  sort  or  other.  As  the  thoughts  and  af- 
fections are  developed,  the  soul  instinctively 
looks  upwards,  and  yearnings  after  God  and 
immortality  are  felt,  which  may  be  discour- 
aged, but  cannot  be  suppressed.  Some  re- 
ligious education  or  other  children  will  have, 
and  their  questionings  will  somewhere  find  an 
answer.  The  only  point  for  us  to  determine 
is,  whether  we  shall  leave  it  to  chance,  or  pro- 
vide the  best  means  of  instruction  and  the  best 
religious  influence  within  our  reach.  We  may 
keep  them  uninformed,  but  we  cannot  keep 
their  minds  inactive  ;  and  by  leaving  them 
without  instruction,  they  contract  prejudices, 
instead  of  forming  opinions.  They  yield  to 
the  first  strong  influence  to  which  they  happen 
to  be  exposed,  and,  instead  of  becoming  im- 
partial seekers  after  truth,  they  become  Prot- 
estant or  Catholic,  superstitious  or  sceptical, 
believers  or  unbelievers.  Christian  or  infidel, 


36  BELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

just  as  it  may  happen.  And  so  families  are 
divided,  domestic  comfort  disturbed,  bigotry 
and  indifference  sit  at  the  same  board,  and 
regard  each  other  with  mutual  pity  or  con- 
tempt, through  the  irrational  and  absurd  ex- 
periment of  neglecting,  in  our  systems  of  edu- 
cation, the  most  important  part  of  the  child's 
nature.  Parents  may  sometimes  bring  them- 
selves to  a  state  of  philosophical  indifference 
about  religion,  as  if  it  were  no  matter  what 
one  believes  concerning  God  and  eternity ;  but 
intelligent  children  cannot  be  kept  from  in- 
quiring, and  if  a  right  direction  is  not  given 
to  them,  they  will  find  a  wrong  direction  for 
themselves.  Their  minds  may  be  kept  torpid 
upon  any  other  subject  more  easily  than  upon 
this.  Their  moral  nature  demands  opportu- 
nity of  development ;  the  conscience  seeks  for 
a  guide ;  and  no  more  dangerous  experiment 
can  be  tried,  than  to  tell  them  that  they  must 
wait  until  mature  years  before  thinking  of 
those  subjects  which  involuntarily  crowd  upon 
their  thoughts  almost  as  soon  as  they  begin  to 
think  at  all. 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  37 

I  would  rather  go  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
say  that  religious  education,  rightly  considered 
and  rightly  conducted,  is  the  whole  education. 
It  is  certainly  the  most  important  part,  and  is 
the  only  right  foundation  on  which  a  practical 
and  useful  education  can  be  based.  For  mor- 
al and  religious  education  cannot  be  separated 
from  each  other.  It  is  religion  which  fixes  the 
standard  of  morality,  and  enacts  the  law  by 
which  our  conduct  is  to  be  regulated.  The 
morality  which  we  would  teach  is  not  the  sys- 
tem of  Zeno  or  Epicurus,  but  Christian  mo- 
rality, with  the  sanctions  and  penalties  which 
Christ  has  established.  No  moral  instruction 
can  be  of  much  value  unless  enforced  by  high- 
er authority  than  the  parents'  command.  The 
child  must  be  taught  to  feel  that  he  is  living 
in  a  spiritual  world,  and  that  the  highest  rela- 
tions of  life  are  not  with  a  world  of  sense,  but 
with  things  unseen  and  eternal.  He  must  be 
taught  that  the  life  of  the  soul  is  the  real  life, 
and  the  law  of  God  the  supreme  law,  and  if 
we  would  make  him  a  Christian,  he  must  also 
be  taught  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  divinely 

4 


88  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

authorized  messenger  of  God,  whom  we  are 
bound  to  believe  and  obey. 

This  is,  properly  speaking,  the  child's  re- 
ligious education.  It  is  the  instruction  by 
which  he  learns  that  his  moral  nature  is  his 
highest  nature,  that  goodness  is  better  than 
knowledge,  that  self-denial  must  be  the  rule  of 
life,  and  that  obedience  to  Christ,  the  teacher 
come  from  God,  is  the  highest  freedom.  It  is 
therefore  not  so  much  the  inculcation  of  doc- 
trines, concerning  which  there  may  be  dispute, 
as  of  principles  of  conduct  and  faith,  concern- 
ing which  all  Christians  agree. 

It  is  this  practical  Christian  education  upon 
which  we  so  strongly  insist; — that  life  should 
thus  be  made  to  rest  upon  the  Christian  basis ; 
—  that  the  whole  education  should  thus  be 
pervaded  by  a  Christian  spirit.  The  instruc- 
tion may  be  directly  and  indirectly  given,  by 
direct  precept  and  silent  example,  by  the  insti- 
tutions of  religion  and  the  Sunday  school,  and 
especially  by  the  timely  aid  which  none  but 
parents  can  give  to  meet  the  growing  wants 
of  the  mind.     They  who  have  thus  given  at- 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  39 

tention  to  the  subject  find  no  practical  diffi- 
culty, and  soon  learn  that  no  necessity  exists 
for  undue  influence,  or  for  arbitrary  dogmati- 
cal instruction.  Nearly  all  the  disputed  points 
of  religion  may  be  silently  deferred  until  the 
young  are  able  to  understand  the  points  of 
difference;  and  while  they  are  instructed,  they 
are  thus  left  free. 

The  fundamental,  undisputed  doctrines  of 
religion  are  more  in  number,  and  of  greater  im- 
portance, than  commonly  supposed,  A  child 
may  be  intelligently  educated  as  a  Christian, 
without  ever  having  heard  of  a  great  part  of 
the  doctrines  about  which  theologians  dis- 
pute. When  his  mind  is  turned  towards  them, 
his  inquiries  should  be  aided  so  far  as  practi- 
cable ;  but  in  general  the  subjects  which  are 
interesting  to  the  young  are  such  as  belong  to 
practical,  not  speculative  religion.  The  au- 
thority of  Christ,  his  precepts  and  promises, 
his  history  on  earth  and  his  ascension  to 
heaven,  the  attributes  of  God,  the  hope  of  im- 
mortality, human  duty  and  responsibleness, 
and  other  topics  such  as  these,  are  the  ones  to 


40  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

which  youthful  minds  turn,  and  by  instruction 
in  which  they  are  made  Christians.  Disputed 
points  of  belief  are  often  a  hinderance  to  re- 
ligious education,  instead  of  a  help.  The 
young  must  learn  the  alphabet  before  they 
can  read,  and  the  elementary  principles  of 
science  before  they  can  study  to  advantage  its 
higher  truths.  In  religion  the  same  judgment 
should  be  exercised.  A  great  part  of  their  re- 
ligious education  can  be  accomplished  before 
the  metaphysical  difficulties  of  religion  are 
introduced,  and  when  the  proper  time  for  their 
consideration  comes,  there  would  then  be  such 
a  groundwork  laid  of  practical  religion  and 
personal  religious  feeling,  that  the  difficulties 
of  disputed  doctrine  would  offer  no  hinderance 
to  religious  growth. 

I  do  not  deny  that  children,  growing  up 
under  positive  religious  influences  such  as 
these,  would,  in  all  probability,  be  brought  to 
the  same  opinions  with  their  parents  or  teach- 
ers. Their  first  conclusions  will  not  be  so 
much  their  own  deliberate  convictions  as  a 
reflection  of  the  minds  of  others,  to  whom  they 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  41 

are  accustomed  to  look  for  guidance.  They 
take  for  granted  that  what  their  parents  be- 
lieve is  true,  and  accordingly  become  Quakers 
or  Episcopalians,  Protestant  or  Catholic,  be- 
lievers in  the  Unity  or  the  Trinity,  according 
to  the  circumstances  under  which  they  are 
placed.  Nor  is  this  to  be  regretted,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  as  it  ought  to  be.  Families 
should  be  thus  held  together  by  common  re- 
ligious sympathies  and  belief.  If  differences 
and  divisions  must  come,  they  come  soon 
enough  when  compelled  by  the  mature  re- 
examination of  early  opinions.  Until  the  time 
of  that  mature  and  strictly  personal  study  ar- 
rives, it  is  far  better  that  decided  religious 
preferences  should  exist,  or,  if  you  please  to 
call  it  so,  religious  prejudices,  by  which  we  are 
attached  to  the  religion  of  our  fathers.  The 
family  is  not  well  taught  in  which  such  pref- 
erences do  not  exist.  They  are  the  conserva- 
tive influence  by  which  the  religious  world  is 
kept  from  being  like  the  waves  of  the  sea, 
driven  about  and  tossed.  It  is  time  enough 
to  change  our  belief  when  it  becomes  an  ur- 

4* 


42  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

gent  duty,  which  we  cannot,  without  wrong 
done  to  our  consciences,  avoid.  Until  then, 
let  families  continue  to  worship  at  the  same 
altar  and  the  same  church,  and  thank  God 
that  they  are  permitted  to  do  so. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  denying  that  such  would 
be  the  result  of  the  religious  training  which  1 
now  recommend,  I  would  urge  it  as  one  of 
the  advantages  to  be  gained.  The  child  of 
Trinitarian  parents  ought  to  grow  up  a  Trini- 
tarian in  belief,  and  remain  so,  until  his  own 
thoughts  and  study  show  the  necessity  of 
change.  And  so  of  other  forms  of  doctrine. 
To  have  fairness  of  mind  and  readiness  to  re- 
ceive new  light,  is  one  thing ;  but  to  have  no 
opinions,  no  preferences,  no  prepossessions,  is 
quite  another. 

But  although  the  most  judicious  religious 
education  will  thus  lead  the  young,  by  an  un- 
perceived  and  almost  irresistible  force,  to  the 
first  adoption  of  the  parent's  belief,  I  again 
deny  that  it  will  make  them  bigoted  or  nar- 
row-minded, or,  in  a  bad  sense  of  the  word, 
prejudiced  against  what  others  believe.     On 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  43 

the  contrary,  it  will  have  made  practical  and 
spiritual  religion  so  much  more  important  than 
dogmatical  and  controversial  religion,  that  all 
unchristian  asperities  of  feeling  will  be  easily 
avoided.  The  charity  which  abides  will  be 
placed  so  much  higher  than  the  knowledge 
which  passes  away,  that  differences  of  belief 
will  not  be  able  to  destroy  the  unity  of  Chris- 
tian faith.  Children  may  be  taught  to  be 
bigots,  if  the  lesson  of  hatred  and  spiritual 
pride  is  carefully  instilled,  but  they  do  not 
become  so  under  the  proper  influence  of  prac- 
tical Christian  education.  Nor  do  they  be- 
come narrow-minded,  or  unwilling  to  look  for 
further  truth.  For,  together  with  all  their  in- 
struction, they  will  have  learned  not  to  think 
of  themselves  more  highly  than  they  ought  to 
think.  They  will  have  learned  their  individ- 
ual responsibilities  to  God  and  the  duty  of 
seeking  diligently  and  always  after  truth. 
They  will  have  been  taught  to  condemn  no 
opinion  without  examining  it,  and  to  remem- 
ber, that,  however  decided  in  their  own  con- 
victions, they  are  not  infallible,  and  that  there- 


44  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

fore  those  from  whom  they  differ  may  be  right, 
and  themselves  wrong ;  that  neither  has  a  right 
to  judge  the  other,  and  that  to  his  own  master 
each  one  must  stand  or  fall.  Let  such  princi- 
ples be  taught,  so  that  they  may  become  the 
pervading  spirit  and  character  of  the  mind, 
and  there  is  no  danger  of  narrowness  either  of 
thought  or  feeling. 

The  child  may  have  a  distinctive  religious 
education  without  being  bigoted,  just  as  the 
scholar  may  be  educated  in  one  school  of 
learning  without  being  pedantic.  Largeness 
of  mind,  freedom  from  unjust  prejudice,  will- 
ingness to  learn,  and  sincere  love  of  truth  for 
the  truth's  sake,  are  themselves  a  part  of  re- 
ligious education  which  should  modify  all  the 
rest.  If  these  were  rightly  taught,  our  differ- 
ent churches  might  continue  to  teach  conflict- 
ing views  of  doctrine,  and  yet  dwell  together 
in  the  unity  of  spirit,  in  the  bond  of  peace, 
and  in  righteousness  of  life.  The  bigotry  with 
which  the  Christian  world  is  so  full,  and  by 
which  it  is  so  cursed,  does  not  come  from  care- 
ful religious  instruction,  but  from  the  perti- 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  45 

nacity  of  ignorance  and  the  deliberate  refusal 
to  examine.  Both  young  and  old  are  taught 
that  the  desire  to  examine  is  a  temptation  of 
the  Evil  One,  and  that  the  highest  safety  con- 
sists in  the  completest  want  of  individual 
thought.  To  go  to  no  other  church,  to  hear 
no  other  doctrine,  to  investigate  no  other 
creed,  to  walk  in  no  other  company,  is  the  in- 
struction given.  It  is  not  instruction,  so 
much  as  a  command  not  to  think.  It  is  not 
religious  education,  so  much  as  sectarian  drill- 
ing. We  need  say  nothing  more  in  its  con- 
demnation than  to  speak  of  it  as  it  is.  It  is 
an  error  into  which  few  or  none  of  those  whom 
I  address  are  likely  to  fall.  Our  tendency,  as 
claiming  to  be  Liberal  Christians,  is  towards 
the  other  extreme.  We  are  more  likely  to 
advocate  too  little  doctrinal  instruction,  than 
too  much.  We  are  more  likely,  through  the 
desire  of  leaving  the  youthful  mind  free,  to 
withhold  the  assistance  which  is  really  need- 
ed, than  to  impose  our  own  thoughts  by  arbi- 
trary command.  But  what  we  should  seek 
for  is  a  wise  and  just  medium,  which  consists 


46  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

in  the  fair  and  rational  treatment  of  those 
whose  education  is  intrusted  to  our  care.  We 
ask  for  the  application  of  common  sense  to 
religious  things.  We  desire  the  same  fairness, 
but  also  the  same  faithfulness,  in  religious 
education,  that  are  needed  in  other  depart- 
ments of  education.  There  should  be  the 
same  respect  for  the  child's  understanding,  the 
same  recognition  of  his  own  right  to  think 
ultimately  for  himself,  but  also  the  same  dili- 
gence in  choosing  subjects  for  thought,  and  in 
helping  him  to  form  right  opinions.  The  in- 
struction given  should  be  carefully  adapted  to 
the  capacity  of  those  who  learn,  and  therefore 
the  more  abstruse  and  difficult  subjects  of  re- 
ligion should  not  be  the  first  taught ;  but  the 
great  principles  of  religion  should  be  early  and 
carefully  inculcated,  the  principles  of  Christian 
conduct  and  of  Christian  faith,  so  that  they 
may  become  the  pervading  principles  of 
thought,  the  governing  principles  of  the  life. 
Christian  morality  and  Christian  hopes  are  as 
intelligible  to  the  child  as  to  the  adult.  He 
can  understand   a  great  part  of   Christ's  in- 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  47 

structions,  he  can  read  intelligently  the  his- 
tory of  Christ's  life,  he  can  discern  the  divine 
beauty  of  his  character,  and  be  taught  to  re- 
ceive him  as  the  Son  of  the  Living  God.  The 
historical  evidences  of  Christianity  may  be 
unknown  to  him,  and  as  yet  he  may  not  see 
those  difficulties  either  of  doctrine  or  fact 
vs^hich  will  afterwards,  with  his  growing  years, 
bring  perplexity  and  sometimes  doubt.  But 
the  great  evidence  on  which  Christian  truth 
and  all  truth  rests  is  already  perceived,  —  nay, 
wrought  into  his  soul,  —  the  evidence  which 
consists  in  the  inward  perception  of  truth  by 
reason  of  its  adaptation  to  supply  the  wants 
and  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  the  soul. 

The  excellence  and  glory  of  Christian  truth 
in  its  teaching  concerning  God  and  eternity 
fill  the  youthful  mind  with  reverence  and  awe. 
The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  may  be  a  part  of 
the  child's  first  reading,  and  his  childish  fears 
are  quieted  when  he  is  taught  that  without 
his  Heavenly  Father  not  even  a  sparrow  fall- 
eth  to  the  ground.  He  may  learn  to  think  of 
heaven  as  wisely  as  the  most  learned,  for  even 


48  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

when  our  faith  is  strongest,  our  knowledge, 
notwithstanding  all  our  ingenious  specula- 
tions, continues  small.  Almost  every  practi- 
cal truth  and  precept,  almost  everything  which 
constitutes  a  practical  religion,  resting  upon 
divine  authority  and  given  by  divine  com- 
mand, is  plain  enough  to  be  apprehended  by 
the  youthful  mind.  Children  may  be  brought 
to  Jesus  Christ  so  as  to  become  properly 
speaking  his  disciples.  They  may  be  Chris- 
tians in  faith  and  conduct  long  before  their 
intellects  can  understand  the  subtilties  of  scep- 
ticism or  the  denials  of  unbelief.  It  is  an  in- 
wrought faith  by  which  the  spiritual  nature  is 
developed  and  the  spiritual  world  made  real. 
It  is  a  childlike,  may  I  not  say  Christ-like 
obedience,  which  brings  them  under  the  bene- 
diction which  Jesus  spoke,  "  Of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  We  do  not  say  that 
such  religious  training  is  an  easy  task,  or 
carelessly  to  be  accomplished.  In  its  perfec- 
tion, it  is  the  highest  education  of  the  soul. 
It  is,  I  believe,  the  great  work  which  the 
Christian  parent  has  to  do.     It  cannot  be  be- 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION.  49 

gun  too  early,  or  prosecuted  with  too  great 
care.  The  one  great  purpose  continually  pres- 
ent in  the  parent's  heart  should  be  to  bring 
his  children  nearer  to  Jesus,  and  to  make  the 
Christian  principles,  under  Christian  author- 
ity, the  commanding  influence  of  their  lives. 

But  we  may  be  asked,  Would  not  this  make 
them  Christian  believers  by  an  authority  which 
they  can  hardly  resist,  and  from  which  they 
can  afterwards  hardly  escape  ?  Does  it  not 
settle  the  question  for  them,  before  they  arp  in 
a  position  to  choose  for  themselves,  that  Jesus 
is  a  divine  teacher,  and  his  doctrines  a  divine 
command  ?  Unquestionably  it  does,  and  un- 
questionably it  is  what  we  are  bound  to  do. 
If  there  are  any  who  care  so  little  about  re- 
ligion as  to  wish  their  children  to  be  left  so 
free  that  they  are  as  likely  to  be  infidels  as 
believers,  heathens  as  Christians,  their  liberal- 
ity goes  so  far  beyond  my  own,  that  there  can 
be  no  sympathy  between  us.  If  they  do  not 
concede  that  religion  of  some  sort  or  other  is 
a  necessity,  and  that  the  purest  and  best  re- 
ligion  of   which  we   know   anything  is   the 

5 


50  RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION. 

Christian,  and  the  purest  morality  that  which 
Christ  taught,  there  is  no  common  ground  for 
us  to  stand  upon.  But  if  this  is  admitted,  if 
we  must  have  some  religion,  some  object  of 
worship,  some  divinely  sanctioned  law,  and  if 
the  Christian  religion  and  the  Christian  law 
are  the  best  of  which  we  know,  it  follows 
surely  that  we  are  bound,  by  the  love  which 
we  bear  to  our  children  and  by  our  responsi- 
bility for  them  to  God,  to  spare  no  pains  in 
bringing  them  to  that  which  is  conceded  to  be 
the  noblest  and  the  best.  Unquestionably 
they  would  be  brought  by  such  a  course  to  be 
Christians,  and  that  is  precisely  the  result 
which  we  would  secure.  What  sect  in  Chris- 
tendom they  may  join,  in  maturer  years,  would 
be  comparatively  uncertain,  and,  if  they  are 
left  without  undue  restraint,  would  depend 
upon  the  natural  bent  of  their  minds  and  the 
later  instruction  they  may  receive.  But  al- 
most uniformly  they  would  remain  Christians ; 
Christians,  I  mean,  in  personal  faith  and  in 
personal  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ.  Let  the 
divine  principles  of  his  Gospel  be  once  thor- 


RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION.  61 

oughly  instilled  into  the  youthful  character, 
let  the  divine  beauty  of  the  life  of  Jesus  be 
once  revealed  to  the  youthful  heart,  let  the 
divine  truths  which  Jesus  taught  once   take 
possession  of  the  youthful  mind,  and  scepti- 
cism, although  it  may  in  after  years  disturb 
the   thoughts,  so  that  the  unimportant   out- 
works may  be  threatened,  will  never  be  able 
to  enter  the  citadel  of  the  soul,  or  to  disturb 
its  unchanging  faith.    Once  having  lived  upon 
the  heavenly  food,  we  must  be  indeed  prodi- 
gals to  desire  the  husks  that  the  swine  do  eat. 
And  if,  through  the  waywardness  of  sin,  we 
become  prodigals,  the  memory  of  our  early 
home  remains,  until  we  say  in  our  hearts.  We 
will  arise  and  go  to  our  father.      The  early 
Christian  instruction  of  which   I  speak  can 
scarcely  by  any  means  be  eradicated.     It  is 
not  so  much  the  inculcation  of  opinions  as 
the  formation  of  character.     It  is  the  surest 
process,  under  the  grace  of  God,  by  which 
"  the  life  of  Christ "  can  be  formed  in  the  soul. 
It  is  therefore  the  way  to  Christian  regenera- 
tion, the  new  and  spiritual  birth.    Early  Chris- 


52  RELIGIOUS   INSTRUCTION. 

tian  education  thus  becomes,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  the  most  effectual  means  of  salvation, 
and  although  we  may  call  it  a  human  instru- 
mentality, it  is  that  with  which  the  Divine 
Spirit  most  effectually  works. 

Lay  aside,  then,  all  sectarian  views,  if  you 
please,  and  let  the  youthful  mind  be  treated 
with  fairness  and  respect.  But  being  Chris- 
tians ourselves,  holding  to  the  Christian  law 
as  the  perfection  of  reason,  to  the  Christian 
faith  as  the  source  of  all  consolation,  to  the 
Christian  standard  of  life  as  the  highest  prac- 
tical development  of  humanity,  we  must  de- 
sire that  our  children  should  grow  into  the 
Christian  faith  and  life,  and  it  is  our  bounden 
duty  to  secure  its  accomplishment,  if  we  can. 


CHAPTER    III. 


How  IS  it  to  be  secured,  and  by  what  agen- 
cy? Who  shall  be  the  teachers,  and  where 
shall  the  lesson  be  taught?  These  are  the 
practical  and  vital  questions,  upon  the  right 
answer  to  which  our  success  depends.  Rut 
there  is  no  part  of  education  upon  which  such 
foolish  and  false  theories  prevail  as  upon  this. 
Whenever  religious  subjects  are  approached, 
many  persons  seem  to  think  that  common 
sense  is  to  be  laid  aside,  and  the  laws  of  the 
human  mind  disregarded.  Let  us,  therefore, 
look  at  the  analogies  of  common  education. 

In  lorming  the  manners  of  children,  to  make 
them  ladylike  and  gentlemanly  in  conduct, 
every  one  knows  that  it  is  chiefly  a  household 
work,  to  be  done  by  parents  themselves.     If 


54  THE  pabent's  duty. 

the  father  is  rude  and  coarse,  and  the  mother 
unladylike,  it  is  a  matter  of  almost  absolute 
destiny  that  the  children  must  become  so  too. 
Awkwardness  and  vulgarity  are  contagious, 
and  no  external  means  of  polish  will  give  true 
refinement  to  those  who  do  not  live  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  refinement  at  home.  The  mother 
must  be  a  lady,  or  the  daughters  will  be  but 
imitation  ladies  at  the  best.  The  father  must 
be  a  gentleman,  and  have  gentlemen  for  his 
associates,  or  the  sons  will  probably  grow  up 
without  knowing  how  a  gentleman  should 
behave.  They  may  wear  gentlemen's  and 
ladies'  clothing,  and  by  the  magic  power  of 
money  be  welcomed  into  what  is  called  the 
best  society,  but  it  will  require  not  only  a  long 
training,  but  also  an  unusual  aptness  to  learn, 
to  work  out  the  leaven  of  eariy  life,  and  to  re- 
move the  original  taint  of  vulgarity.  It  may 
be  done,  unquestionably ;  but  only  by  a  hard 
and  slow  process. 

In  all  the  nicer  shades  of  education,  such  as 
the  correct  use  of  language  and  the  cultiva- 
tion of  taste,  similai  remarks  hold  true.     Bad 


THE   parent's   duty.  S5 

grammar  habitually  heard  at  home  outmasters 
the  teacher's  skill,  and  sets  the  rules  of  Murray 
at  defiance.  Teaching  a  thousand  times  over 
does  not  avail,  and  words  continue  to  be  mis- 
placed and  misused,  with  insuperable,  because 
it  is  an  unconscious,  pertinacity.  It  rarely 
happens  that  those  whose  early  education 
has  been  thus  deficient,  and  whose  "mother 
tongue "  is  ungrammatical  and  inelegant, 
ever  learn  to  use  language  with  purity  and 
correctness.  They  may  know  how,  and  in 
writing  or  set  speech  may  avoid  great  mis- 
takes ;  but  the  moment  that  they  are  off  their 
guard,  their  former  way  of  speaking  returns. 
The  highest  finish  of  scholar-like  education  is 
not  always  enough  to  train  the  ear  to  that 
delicate  perception  of  grammatical  and  rhe- 
torical elegance,  which  should  have  been 
taught  and  learned  in  the  nursery  and  at  the 
fireside. 

This  is  still  more  true  of  that  unobserved 
cultivation  of  taste,  which  begins  so  early  that 
it  seems  like  a  natural  tendency  of  the  mind. 
An  ideal  of  beauty  and  excellence,  implanted 


56  THE  parent's  duty. 

in  the  mind  of  the  child,  is  apt  to  remain 
there  always.  The  pleasures  and  enjoyments 
which  he  is  then  accustomed  to  prize,  will 
probably  give  direction  to  his  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness through  his  whole  life.  Early  associa- 
tions impart  a  charm  and  a  relish  either  to 
frivolous  amusements,  novel-reading,  games 
of  chance,  and  other  idle  occupations,  or  to 
the  more  intellectual  and  quiet  pleasures  of 
conversation  and  useful  reading,  of  music  and 
of  art. 

A  close  observer  will  therefore  almost  al- 
ways be  able  to  determine  what  were  the 
early  influences  under  which  a  man  grew  up, 
by  a  few  hours'  conversation  and  familiar  in- 
tercourse with  him.  Colleges  and  universities 
may  have  done  wonders,  and  he  may  have 
travelled  the  world  over,  in  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge and  for  the  cultivation  of  taste ;  but, 
with  rare  exceptions,  the  groundwork  of  early 
home-education  will  appear  through  all  the 
coloring  and  polish  afterwards  laid  on. 

What  I  have  now  said  with  regard  to  gei  • 
eral  education  will  be  admitted,  proper  allo^ 


THE  parent's  duty.  57 

ance  being  made  for  exceptions,  by  almost  all. 
Therefore  the  first  demand  of  all  popular 
educators  and  of  all  writers  upon  the  subject 
of  education  is  this,  —  educate  mothers.  Not 
that  they  are  expected  to  do  the  work  of  the 
school-teacher,  but  that  they  may  not  do  a 
work  of  perversion  from  the  first ;  that  they 
may  establish  right  tendencies  of  thought  and 
speech,  of  manners  and  taste,  before  the  work 
of  school-teaching  begins  ;  that  home  educa- 
tion may  not  be  all  the  time  undoing  what 
teachers  and  school-education  are  vainly  try- 
ing to  do  ;  that  the  instructions  of  the  school- 
room may  be  only  the  theoretical  explanation 
of  what  is  daily  illustrated  at  home.  It  is 
universally  conceded,  that  the  best  appliances 
of  school-education  can  but  imperfectly  over- 
come the  pernicious  influences  of  uneducated 
homes. 

It  would  therefore  require  the  continued 
improvement  of  two  or  three  generations,  to 
work  a  social  reform  in  education.  But  what 
are  they  to  do  who  are  already  on  the  stage  of 
action,  whose  own  education  has  been  neg- 


58  THE  parent's  duty. 

lected,  but  to  whom,  as  parents,  the  care  and 
responsibility  of  children  are  intrusted  ?  We 
answer,  that  they  should  be  only  the  more 
diligent  to  do  the  best  they  can ;  for,  at  the 
best,  their  children's  education  will  be  con- 
ducted at  great  disadvantage.  But  above  all, 
let  them  endeavor  to  remove  their  own  unfit- 
ness, and  to  qualify  themselves,  though  late, 
for  the  duties  which,  as  parents,  they  ought  to 
perform.  Let  them  supply  the  deficiencies  of 
their  own  early  education  by  reading  and 
study.  Let  them  observe  and  learn,  and  dili- 
gently seek  for  the  instruction  which  they 
need.  Let  them  learn  with  their  children, 
and  from  them,  if  need  be,  and  thus  become 
learners  and  teachers  at  once.  K  they  have 
good  sense  enough  to  do  this,  they  will  re- 
move a  great  part  of  the  diiBculty,  by  increas- 
ing their  children's  respect  for  learning,  and 
making  them  appreciate  the  better  advantages 
which  they  enjoy.  The  household  in  which 
such  principles  prevail  is  altogether  an  im- 
proving household,  and  if  such  principles  gen- 
erally prevailed,  one  generation  would  accom- 


THE  parent's  duty.  59 

plish  as  much  as,  under  other  circumstances, 
would  be  done  by  three.  For  this  reason  it 
is,  that  adult  schools  and  popular  lectures, 
libraries  and  reading-rooms,  and  other  means 
of  general  improvement,  are  so  important. 
The  educators  of  children  need  to  be  edu- 
cated, so  as  to  become  more  competent  to  fill 
the  position  which  they  hold. 

But  my  subject  is  not  intellectual  educa- 
tion, nor  education  in  a  general  sense.  It  is 
religious  education ;  and  upon  this  all  I  have  , 
been  saying  is  intended  directly  to  bear.  For 
the  same  principles  apply,  the  same  course  of 
thought  may  be  followed,  and  strictly  analo- 
gous conclusions  may  be  deduced.  Nay,  the 
principles  apply  more  closely,  the  argument  is 
still  stronger,  the  conclusions  are  still  more 
absolute.  Religious  education  must  chiefly 
be  home  education.  The  parents  must  be 
religious  persons,  and  the  sentiment  of  re- 
ligion must  pervade  all  they  do,  or  the  relig- 
ious education  of  the  child  will  be,  at  the 
best,  very  imperfect.     Sunday  schools  may  do 


60  THE   parent's    duty. 

something,  and  are  an  important  aid  to  the 
parent's  exertions ;  but  they  cannot  do  every- 
thing, nor  can  they  supply  the  deficiency  at 
home.  Pastoral  influence  and  the  institutions 
of  public  worship  may  do  something,  but  very 
little  when  they  work  alone.  Well-selected 
books,  and  well-chosen  associates,  are  perhaps 
a  more  powerful  agency,  and  come  nearer  to 
the  home  influence  which  is  chiefly  desired. 
But  put  them  all  together,  and  make  them  as 
strong  as  you  well  can,  yet,  if  the  parental 
influence  is  wanting,  the  best  religious  ed- 
ucation cannot  be  supplied.  An  irreligious 
education  is,  in  fact,  going  on  all  the  time 
at  home,  which  vitiates  or  annuls  the  good 
learned  elsewhere.  The  more  delicate  per- 
ceptions of  right  and  wrong,  the  feeling  of 
habitual  reverence  for  God  and  Christ,  the 
unconscious  reference  of  all  we  do  to  the 
Christian  law,  and  whatever  else  constitutes 
the  inward  and  spiritual  life  of  the  child,  can 
seldom  be  thoroughly  learned,  except  at  home. 
The  nursery  and  the  fireside  are  the  schools 
of  religion.      A   Christian    mother   is   worth 


THE   parent's   duty.  61 

more  to  her  children  in  their  religious  and 
moral,  that  is  to  say  their  Christian  training, 
than  all  Sunday  schools  and  churches,  preach- 
ers and  libraries,  put  together.  She  alone 
upon  one  side,  and  all  the  world  upon  the 
other,  and  she  is  most  likely  to  prevail.  Let 
her  be  heartily  a  Christian  woman,  and  her 
children  are  almost  sure  to  be  Christians. 
Add  to  her  influence  that  of  the  father;  let 
her  gentle  persuasions  be  enforced  by  his 
authority,  and  let  both  parents  thus  co-oper- 
ate with  each  other,  as  they  ought  always  to 
do,  and  their  children  would  assuredly  grow 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord. 

We  must  make  allowance,  1  know,  for 
errors  of  judgment,  where  there  has  been  no 
fault  of  intention,  —  too  much  indulgence  at 
one  time,  and  too  great  severity  at  another,  — 
so  that  the  apparent  exceptions  to  the  rule 
may  be  many ;  and  irreligious  persons  always 
make  the  most  of  them,  as  an  argument 
against  religion  itself.  But  the  exceptions 
are  generally  such  only  in  appearance.     They 


62  THE  parent's  duty. 

are  attributable  either  to  unwise  methods  of 
education,  or  to  peculiar  and  exceptional 
waywardness  in  the  child.  But  whatever 
force  may  be  allowed  to  the  exceptions  which 
really  or  apparently  occur,  the  rule  still  re- 
mains, with  regard  to  religious  education,  as 
to  all  other  education,  that  what  we  learn  at 
home  is  the  most  thoroughly  learned.  The 
surest  way  to  secure  the  good  education  of 
the  young,  is  previously  to  have  secured  the 
good  education  of  their  parents.  The  surest, 
and  commonly  the  only,  way  to  secure  the 
Christian  training  of  our  children,  is  to  be 
Christians  ourselves.  It  is  the  hardest  way, 
but  no  one  will  deny  that  it  is  the  surest  and 
the  best  way.  For  then  we  shall  be  teaching 
them  always.  A  silent,  unperceived,  but  al- 
most irresistible  force,  leads  them  in  the  path 
in  which  they  should  go.  The  name  of  Jesus 
becomes  dear  to  their  hearts.  The  thought 
of  heaven  mingles  in  their  dreams.  The 
natural  selfishness  of  their  hearts  is  restrained 
and  prevented  from  becoming  sinful.  A  re- 
ligious feeling  mixes  with  their  enjoyments, 


THE  parent's  duty.  63 

to  purify,  but  not  to  lessen,  their  delight. 
Duty  loses  its  stern  aspect,  and  appears  as 
beautiful  as  it  really  is.  Self-denial,  prompted 
by  love,  ceases  to  be  a  hardship,  and  is  exer- 
cised with  cheerful  good-will.  The  graces 
and  excellences  of  Christian  character  are 
almost  unconsciously  formed,  and  the  divine 
spirit,  working  through  parental  agency,  si- 
lently effects  the  regeneration  of  the  soul. 
The  spiritual  life  is  thus  born  within  the  heart 
of  the  child,  he  himself  scarce  knows  how; 
and  as  he  comes  to  maturer  years,  his  part  is 
only  to  adopt,  by  deliberate  and  conscious 
choice,  that  which  he  has  already  learned  to 
love  and  revere.  Having  thus  been  educated 
to  be  a  Christian,  under  the  parental  influence 
of  united  precept  and  example,  he  becomes  a 
Christian  almost, as  certainly  as  he  becomes  a 
man.  It  may  seem  to  be  a  natural  progress, 
and,  to  those  who  continually  "ask  for  a 
sign,"  it  may  not  have  mystery  enough,  or 
enough  outward  demonstration,  to  satisfy 
their  demands.  But  it  is,  in  fact,  the  di- 
vinely appointed  growth,  through  divinely  ap- 


04  THE   parent's   DUTY. 

pointed  agencies,  under  the  Divine  blessing 
and  guidance,  to  a  divine  and  blessed  result. 
The  parent  is  the  best  religious  teacher, 
and  our  homes  are  the  school-rooms  and  the 
churches  where  religion  may  be  most  perfectly 
taught. 

These  considerations  have  established  a 
usage  in  some  parts  of  the  world  and  in  some 
churches,  under  which  a  profession  of  Chris- 
tian faith,  by  partaking  of  the  communion,  is 
made  a  prerequisite  to  marriage,  and  both 
parties  come  under  express  obligation  to  bring 
the  children  who  may  be  committed  to  their 
care  under  the  influences  of  Christian  educa- 
tion. It  is  a  usage  founded  in  just  views  of 
the  parental  relation,  and,  if  it  could  accom- 
plish its  purpose,  might  be  strongly  recom- 
mended. But  it  has  almost  always  degen- 
erated into  a  mere  form,  and  been  attended  to 
as  a  matter  of  course  and  of  necessity,  so  that 
its  moral  and  religious  eflicacy  has  been  great- 
ly impaired.  Wherever  it  has  prevailed,  how- 
ever, its  general  conservative  influence  has 
been  felt,  and  the  distinct  recognition  of  re- 


THE  parent's  duty.  65 

igious  duty  on  the  part  of  parents  to  their 
children  must  have  a  good  effect.  It  would 
certainly  be  better  than  the  total  disregard  of 
all  such  considerations  so  common  in  modern 
times,  and  especially  in  this  country.  If  it  be 
true,  as  it  certainly  is,  that  moral  and  religious 
culture  is  the  most  important  part  of  educa- 
tion, and  the  part  on  which  our  happiness  and 
usefulness  in  this  world  chiefly  depend,  what- 
ever may  be  its  bearing  upon  the  world  to 
come,  and  if  this  moral  and  religious  cul- 
ture is  chiefly  the  result  of  parental  influence 
and  home  education,  then  it  follows,  plainly 
enough,  that  those  who  are  not  competent  to 
exert  a  healthful  influence  upon  the  moral  and 
religious  training  of  their  children  ought  not 
to  have  them  committed  to  their  charge. 
When  the  incompetency  is  extreme,,  the  law 
itself  takes  cognizance  of  it,  and  rescues  chil- 
dren from  the  care  of  intempe^te  or  noto- 
riously depraved  parents.  But  this  is  seldom 
done  except  when,  besides  the  intemperance 
and  depravity,  the  additional  crime  of  poverty 
is  found  to  exist.     Then  inability  to  maintain 


66  THE  parent's  duty. 

the  child  is  the  principal  alleged  cause  of  in- 
terfering in  his  behalf. 

Nor  would  we  have  it  otherwise,  considered 
as  the  regulation  of  civil  law.  Public  inter- 
ference with  private  rights  is  always  a  danger- 
ous experiment,  and  it  is  better  for  children  to 
suffer  a  great  deal  of  neglect  or  mismanage- 
ment at  home,  than  to  destroy  the  providen- 
tial arrangement  by  which  they  are  brought 
into  families.  The  legislation  by  which  pa- 
rental rights  are  annulled,  should  be  charily 
and  tenderly  administered. 

Still  we  cannot  help  feeling  that  a  wrong  is 
done,  and  a  hardship  endured,  when  children 
full  of  natural  promise,  and  who  have  a  natu- 
ral right  to  be  educated  in  truth  and  virtue, 
are  placed  under  a  control  which  they  cannot 
resist,  by  which  a  bad  direction  is  given  to 
their  whole  lives  from  the  first.  By  the  irre- 
ligious, worldly,  and  sinful  character  of  their 
parents,  they  are  born  to  an  inheritance  of 
evil,  upon  which  they  are  almost  sure  to  enter. 
The  nursery  is  to  them  an  infant  school  of 
fretfulness  and  ill-tempered  selfishness.     The 


THE  parent's  duty.  67 

father's  lips  teach  them  to  despise  religion, 
and  the  mother's  example  leads  them  to  re- 
gard frivolous  pleasures  as  the  great  charm  of 
life.  They  learn  no  habits  of  self-government 
or  self-denial,  because  they  see  nothing  but 
self-indulgence  around  them.  They  gain  no 
exalted  ideas  of  duty,  for  they  are  practically 
taught  that  to  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry  is  the 
great  object  of  life,  and  that  money  is  the  root 
of  all  excellence  and  the  foundation  of  all  re- 
spectability. They  know  that  nominally  they 
belong  to  a  Christian  family ;  but  for  all  they 
learn  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  they  might  as 
well  be  heathens. 

The  evil  is  greater  or  less  according  to  the 
degree  of  refinement  and  general  education 
under  which  it  appears ;  but  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, whether  of  poverty  or  riches,  of 
vulgarity  or  refinement,  of  ignorance  or  in- 
tellectual culture,  the  moral  and  religious 
incompetency  of  parents  is  a  wrong  and 
a  misfortune  to  their  children.  A  trust  is 
thereby  committed  to  those  who  are  not 
morally   able   to   discharge   it.     A   responsi- 


68  THE  parent's  duty. 

bility  rests  upon  them  to  which  they  are  not 
equal.  They  are  teachers  without  having 
been  taught  themselves,  and  guides  over  a 
road  upon  which  they  have  never  travelled. 
Their  children  ask  them  for  bread,  and  they 
give  them  a  stone ;  for  a  fish,  and  they  give 
them  a  serpent. 

We  say  that  it  is  a  wrong  done  and  a  hard- 
ship endured.  But  how  shall  it  be  corrected  ? 
how  shall  it  be  prevented?  —  questions  which 
are  hard  to  answer,  but  which  society  must 
answer,  at  its  peril.  The  regeneration  of  the 
world,  and  the  safety  of  the  Christian  Church, 
under  whatever  organization  it  may  appear, 
depend  upon  the  issue.  The  rising  genera- 
tions of  our  land  must  be  educated  to  be 
Christians,  with  greater  care  and  faithfulness 
than  heretofore  exercised,  or  they  will  not 
grow  up  Christians  at  all,  or  only  nominal 
Christians  at  the  best.  Parents  must  be  the 
principal  educators,  and  the  greater  part  ol 
parents  are  incompetent  to  the  task.  So  in- 
competent are  they  very  often,  that  they  do 
not  recognize  the  duty,  and  are  perhaps  throw- 


THE  parent's  duty.  69 

ing  their  influence  into  the  wrong  scale. 
These  are  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  constitute 
the  real  difficulty  to  be  encountered.  We 
would  do  what  little  we  can  to  call  the  atten- 
tion of  religious-minded  people  to  the  subject, 
and  through  them  to  secure  the  diffusion  of 
correct  ideas. 

For,  to  acknowledge  the  difficulty,  and  dis- 
tinctly to  recognize  the  duty,  is  a  large  part  of 
the  reform  to  be  effected.  Let  parents  be 
taught  the  obligation  under  which  they  have 
come,  the  solemn  responsibility  in  which  their 
lives  are  passed.  It  is  not  children  to  be  fed 
and  clothed,  but  immortal  souls  to  be  edu- 
cated, who  are  placed  under  their  care;  —  to 
be  educated,  not  chiefly  in  knowledge,  but  in 
practical  wisdom ;  —  to  be  taught  how  to  learn 
and  how  to  live  ;  to  be  taught  how  to  govern 
themselves  under  the  law  of  obedience  to 
God  ;  to  be  directed  in  the  formation  of  the 
moral  and  religious  character;  —  in  a  word,  to 
be  educated  as  Christians,  with  the  hope  of 
Christian  salvation.  This  is  the  great  work 
which   parents  have  to  do ;  and  by  doing  it, 


70  THE    parent's    duty. 

they  act  as  the  agents  of  God  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  world. 

Let  the  parental  duties  and  obligations  be 
thus  seen  and  acknowledged,  and  our  thought- 
lessness in  entering  upon  them,  and  our  negli- 
gence in  discharging  them,  would  cease.  But 
we  are  reluctant  to  discern  the  truth  of  our 
position,  because  we  feel  incompetent  to  its 
duties  ;  —  an  incompetency  which  does  indeed 
generally  exist,  for  although  it  is  sad  to  say, 
yet  it  is  true,  that  comparatively  few  parents 
are,  by  their  own  education  and  character, 
competent  guides  in  leading  their  children  to 
God.  Their  own  religious  knowledge  is  so 
imperfect,  and  thgir  own  religious  attainments 
are  so  small,  that  their  direct  teaching  is  full 
of  mistakes,  and  the  indirect  teaching  of  their 
example  still  more  full  of  blemishes.  They 
therefore  try  to  escape  from  the  duty,  and  de- 
volve it  upon  others.  But  they  cannot  escape. 
Whether  they  will  or  no,  they  are  the  princi- 
pal teachers  of  their  children,  and,  either  for 
good  or  evil,  are  the  chief  directors  of  their 
moral  a«id  religious  life. 


THE   parent's   duty.  71 

What,  then,  should  they  do  ?  If  they  are 
conscientious  persons,  they  will  become  learn- 
ers, that  they  may  teach.  They  will  learn 
with  their  children  and  from  them,  becoming 
guides  while  they  are  themselves  seeking  the 
way.  By  their  earnestness  of  purpose,  they 
will  make  up  for  their  deficiency  in  attain- 
ment, and  by  their  own  endeavor  to  advance 
in  the  religious  life,  will  excite  their  children 
to  the  same  desire.  They  will  thus,  while  ac- 
knowledging their  deficiency,  be  doing  their 
best  to  remove  it,  and  will  give  to  their  chil- 
dren an  example,  although  not  of  unblemished 
goodness,  yet  of  sincere  Christian  endeavor. 
And  this  is  the  main  thingi  This  is  the  most 
important  end  to  be  secured.  We  might  al- 
most say  that  the  child's  heart  will  find  its  own 
way  to  God,  if  encouraged  to  seek  for  it.  The 
most  important  part  of  religious  education  is 
to  impress  upon  the  child  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  duty  and  the  necessity  of  a  religious 
life.  Whenever  this  has  been  duly  enforced 
and  duly  impressed  upon  him,  his  regenera- 
tion has  begun. 


72  THE  parent's  duty. 

It  is  not  the  incompetency  of  parents,  there- 
fore, but  their  indifference,  which  stands  in 
the  way.  With  the  Gospel  in  their  hands  as 
a  text-book,  they  cannot  go  far  wrong  in 
teaching,  so  long  as  they  are  themselves  try- 
ing to  learn,  and  to  follow  the  instructions 
they  give.  Make  all  requisite  allowance  for 
their  incompetency,  and  for  all  other  difficul- 
ties of  the  case,  and  yet  we  must  acknowl- 
edge, that,  if  the  present  generation  were  to 
be  formed  under  such  general  influences  as 
those  of  which  I  speak,  the  next  generation 
would  be  morally  and  religiously  far  in  ad- 
vance of  our  own.  Our  great  trouble,  at  the 
present  day,  is  also  the  worst  omen  for  the 
future.  It  is  the  neglect  of  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious home  education.  It  is  the  disposition 
of  parents  to  devolve  upon  schools  and  teach- 
ers that  which  they  ought  to  do  themselves. 
Their  children  are  expected  to  learn  religion 
at  the  church  and  Sunday  school,  while  they 
are  learning  worldliness,  sin,  and  irreligion  at 
home.  The  bad  home-influence,  which  lasts 
all  the  week,  is  to  be  counteracted  by  one  or 


THE  parent's  duty.  73 

two  hours  on  the  Lord's  day.  A  vain  hope, 
which  no  one  who  deserves  to  be  the  parent 
or  guardian  of  the  young  would  entertain.  In 
the  nursery  and  at  the  fireside  must  the  Chris- 
tian morality  be  taught,  or  they  will  be  but 
seldom  learned.  Parents  must  lead  the  w^ay, 
or  children  will  not  follow.  They  must  be 
the  teachers,  or  children  will  not  learn.  They 
must,  by  precept  and  example,  avow  the  ne- 
cessity of  a  Christian  life,  or  children  will  not 
feel  its  obligation. 

I  would  not  undervalue  the  external  aid 
which  the  Sunday  school  and  church  may 
lend  to  the  religious  education  of  the  young. 
Unless  very  badly  conducted,  the  Sunday 
school  affords  a  great  amount  of  religious  in- 
struction, and  by  the  affectionate  influence  of 
good  teachers  leads  the  child,  almost  uncon- 
sciously, to  the  religious  life.  As  an  aid  to 
parental  influence,  it  is  invaluable,  and  even 
as  a  substitute  for  parental  influence,  often 
accomplishes  a  great  deal.  Children  will  often 
carry  home  with  them  moral  and  religious 
principles,  which  save  them,  in  part,  from  the 

7 


74  THE   parent's    duty. 

deleterious  example  of  parents  themselves. 
Parents  are  therefore  performing  part  of  their 
duty  by  placing  their  children  under  this  in 
struction,  which  may  partially  supply  their 
own  neglect.  But  such  was  not  the  intended 
agency  of  the  Sunday  school,  nor  can  it,  under 
such  circumstances,  accomplish  its  best  result. 
It  was  intended  as  an  aid,  and  not  as  a  coun- 
teracting influence  ;  to  confirm  the  parental 
teaching,  not  to  conflict  with  it ;  to  help  the 
parents  in  their  work,  and  not  to  take  the 
work  out  of  their  hands.  Let  the  Sunday 
school  be  so  used  and  cherished,  and  it  be- 
comes, strictly  speaking,  of  infinite  value ;  but 
if  made  an  apology  for  parental  neglect,  its 
best  efficacy  is  destroyed. 

In  like  manner  of  the  Christian  Church. 
All  its  arrangements  should  have  more  or  less 
reference  to  the  interests  of  the  young.  The 
Saviour  said  to  Peter,  ''  If  thou  lovest  me 
more  than  the  rest,  feed  my  lambs,"  and  the 
Christian  pastor  is  very  unfaithful  who  neg- 
lects the  more  youthful  part  of  his  flock.  He 
should  bring  them  as  near  hiniself  as  possible, 


THE   parent's 

SO  as  to  interest  them  in  the 
istrations  of  religion  in  their  early  years.  He 
should  take  the  Sunday  school  under  his  gen- 
eral care,  and  do  whatever  he  can,  both  at  the 
church  and  from  house  to  house,  in  directing 
the  religious  education  of  the  young.  His  in* 
fluence  upon  them  will  ultimately  be  the 
strongest  influence  which  he  exerts.  He  may 
modify  and  improve  the  character  of  his 
adult  congregation,  but  he  may  sometimes 
mould,  and  almost  create,  the  character  of 
children. 

But  while  I  say  this,  it  is  manifest  that  he 
must  work  with  parents,  not  against  them ;  to 
insure  the  success  of  their  efforts,  rather  than 
to  originate  a  work  of  his  own.  He  may  be- 
come the  most  efficient  help  by  adding  the 
religious  sanction  to  the  parental  authority; 
but  he  can  do  almost  nothing  if  left  to  work 
alone. 

In  this  respect  parents  are  not  unfrequently 
themselves  to  blame,  when  most  ready  to  find 
fault  with  the  ministers  of  religion.  They 
expect    all  the  religious   influence   to   come 


76  THE  parent's  duty. 

from  him,  as  if  it  were  his  exclusive  busi- 
ness, and  do  little  or  nothing  themselves. 
They  regret  to  see  their  children  growing  up 
almost  without  religious  education,  and  com- 
plain that  theur  pastor  is  not  more  diligent  in 
looking  after  the  lambs  which  wander  from 
the  fold.  But  they  are  giving  him  a  task 
which  no  one  man,  nor  ten  men,  can  do.  It 
is  a  task,  or  rather  a  labor  of  love,  which  God 
has  divided  among  many,  giving  to  each 
father  and  mother  their  several  duties  to  per- 
form. They  are  the  true  pastors  to  their 
children,  the  ministers  of  religion,  to  bring 
them  to  Jesus  Christ.  The  utmost  faithful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  public  minister  cannot 
make  the  children  of  his  congregation  devout, 
unless  the  home  ministrations  of  religion, 
through  the  precept  and  example  of  religious 
parents,  are  daily  laying  the  foundation  on 
which  he  builds.  We  come,  therefore,  again 
to  the  same  truth,  that,  if  children  are  to  be 
educated  at  all  as  Christians,  they  must  be  so 
educated  at  home. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


I  MAY,  perhaps,  without  impropriety,  here 
allude  to  a  subject  which  constitutes  one  of 
the  points  of  controversy  among  the  friends  of 
education.  How  far  should  the  schools  and 
seminaries  of  learning,  to  which  children  are 
sent  for  ordinary  education,  be  intrusted  with 
their  religious  and  moral  culture?  Should 
any  religious  influence  be  exerted,  or  not? 
Shall  the  Bible  be  used  as  a  class-book,  or 
altogether  excluded  ?  Shall  it  be  read  as  a 
school  exercise,  and  shall  the  teacher  be  au- 
thorized to  explain  it?  This  is  the  general 
question  in  its  most  general  aspect.  It  as- 
sumes a  more  definite  and  narrow  form  in 
what  are  called  parochial  schools,  the  object 
of  which  is  to  give  to  each  religious  denomi- 

7* 


78  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

nation,  and  if  possible  to  each  pastoral  charge, 
exclusive  control  in  the  education  of  the  chil- 
dren under  its  care.  They  make  the  school- 
teacher also  the  religious  teacher,  and  the 
clergy  or  church  the  acting  superintendents 
and  directors  of  the  school.  Such  is  the  sys- 
tem which  the  Church  of  Rome  has  always 
followed,  and  almost  all  other  churches  which 
have  been  established  by  law.  In  England, 
the  majority  of  the  people,  being  dissenters, 
are  unwilling  to  submit  to  such  a  system,  and 
the  Church,  being  established  by  law,  is  un- 
willing to  consent  to  any  other ;  and  therefore 
no  effective  system  of  popular  education  has 
ever  been  adopted.  In  this  country  the  vol- 
untary system  is  followed  in  religious  affairs, 
and  common  school  education  is  made  a  sub- 
ject of  law.  The  intention  has  been  to  sepa- 
rate the  public  schools  entirely  from  sectarian 
religion,  and  it  has  been  accomplished,  gener- 
ally speaking,  except  in  so  far  that,  as  the  great 
majority  are  Protestants,  the  American  system 
of  common  school  education  has  a  general,  but 
a  decided,  Protestant  character.     The  same 


SCHOOL   EDUCATION.  79 

may  be  said  of  our  private  schools  and  other 
seminaries  of  learning,  except  those  estab- 
lished by  particular  religious  sects  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  own  religious  views. 

I  cannot  go  into  the  minute  discussion  of  a 
subject  so  large  and  complicated  as  this,  and 
would  only  express  my  opinion  upon  the 
general  point  at  issue.  The  broad  principle 
can  be  settled,  although  practical  difficulties 
in  its  application  may  sometimes  occur.  In 
a  Christian  community,  it  is  certainly  not  too 
much  to  say  that  Christian  education  should 
be  encouraged,  and  that  Christian  principles 
of  education  should  prevail.  That  is  to  say, 
Christian  morality  should  be  taught,  and  a 
general  Christian  tone  should  pervade  the 
school,  both  in  its  instruction  and  its  disci- 
pline. The  teacher  should  be,  in  general 
terms,  a  Christian  believer,  and  both  in  man- 
ners and  moral  conduct  above  an  average 
standard  of  Christian  demeanor.  Otherwise 
he  is  not  a  fit  teacher  for  the  children  of 
Christian  parents,  and  will  do  more  harm  to 
their  morals  than  good  to  their  minds.     But 


80  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

to  require  of  him  to  become  the  direct  teacher 
of  religion  would  be,  I  think,  to  expect  too 
much,  and  by  requiring  it  we  should  incapaci- 
tate him  from  performing  his  other  duties. 
There  must  be  division  of  labor,  and  there  is 
a  time  and  place  for  everything.  The  school- 
house  is  intended  for  mental  culture  and  the 
attainment  of  knowledge.  The  religious  in- 
fluence which  it  exerts  should  be  chiefly  indi- 
rect and  incidental,  —  an  influence  which  is 
undoubtedly  very  strong,  either  for  good  or 
evil,  but  which  depends  upon  the  personal 
character  of  the  teacher  more  than  upon  the 
direct  instructions  given.  The  Bible  may  or 
may  not  be  used  as  a  school-book,  according 
to  the  particular  circumstances  of  each  case. 
In  some  form  we  should  decidedly  prefer,  and 
almost  insist  upon,  its  use,  if  only  by  reading 
such  portions  of  it  as  govern  the  moral  con- 
duct, and  concerning  which  there  can  be  no 
sectarian  dispute ;  for  its  use  in  any  way  is  a 
distinct  recognition  of  Christianity  as  the  law 
of  life.  But  to  make  religion  and  religious 
opinions  a  regular  study,  just  as  grammar  and 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 


81 


algebra  are  taught,  would  be  the  conversion 
of  good  day-schools  into  bad  theological  semi- 
naries, and  the  great  purposes  of  school  edu- 
cation would  be  defeated.  Not  one  teacher 
in  a  hundred  would  be  competent  to  the  task, 
and  children  would  become  disgusted  witli 
religion,  as  being  the  dullest  part  of  their 
school  exercise. 

We  need  scarcely  say,  therefore,  that  the 
more  narrow  system  of  parochial  schools,  the 
express  object  of  which  is  to  inculcate  a  sys- 
tem of  belief,  is  one  with  which  we  have  no 
sympathy.  At  the  best,  and  when  best  con- 
ducted, they  undertake  to  do  a  work  which 
properly  belongs  to  the  household  and  to  the 
Church,  and  by  attempting  to  do  it  neglect  the 
work  which  properly  belongs  to  themselves. 
They  are,  therefore,  very  seldom  good  schools, 
and  seldom  make  good  scholars.  Their 
course  of  study  is  generally  contracted,  and 
there  is  a  certain  moral  pressure,  a  weight  of 
authority,  brought  to  bear  upon  the  youthful 
mind,  by  which  its  vigor  is  checked  and  its 
individuality  destroyed     A  decent  average  of 


82  SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

scholarship  is  attained,  and  a  stereotyped  uni- 
formity of  character,  as  the  best  result  which 
can  reasonably  be  expected.  Nothing  can  be 
more  unfavorable  to  the  just  development  of 
the  youthful  intellect  than  to  know  that  pre- 
viously determined  opinions  must  be  formed. 
To  feel  one's  self  restrained  from  inquiry,  and 
to  see  on  every  side  the  limits  beyond  which 
we  must  not  go,  as  if  it  were  a  predestined 
order  of  Providence  that  we  must  remain  in 
this  or  in  that  sectarian  connection,  so  that  we 
must  be  kept  even  from  familiar  intercourse 
with  all  except  those  of  our  own  way  of  think- 
ing, is  an  influence  almost  as  pernicious  as 
any  that  could  be  devised.  The  vigorous 
mind  rebels  against  it,  and  becomes  impatient 
of  all  restraint.  The  feebler  intellect  yields  to 
the  contracting  force,  and  is  educated  into 
imbecility. 

Such  is  the  common  working  of  sectarian 
schools.  In  proportion  as  they  become  sec- 
tarian, they  fail  in  making  learned  or  strong- 
minded  m'en.  The  best  teachers  cannot  neu- 
tralize the  narrowing  influence  of  the  system 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION.  88 

under  which  they  are  thus  compelled  to  work, 
and,  generally  speaking,  good  teachers  refuse 
to  work  under  such  a  system  at  all.  How- 
ever fixed  their  own  religious  belief,  they  will 
rarely  consent  to  become  the  tools  even  of 
their  own  sect.  They  feel  the  necessity  of 
working  freely  to  work  well,  and  the  restricted 
precincts  of  a  sect  do  not  suit  them  as  a  place 
of  working.  Sectarian  schools,  therefore,  gen- 
erally have  but  second-rate  teachers,  and  are 
avoided  by  all  persons  who  wish  their  chil- 
dren to  be  well  and  thoroughly  taught.  The 
religious  influence  of  home  instruction  and 
example  is  enough,  when  added  to  that  of  the 
church  and  Sunday  school,  without  endeavor- 
ing to  exclude  all  other  influences.  We  ad- 
vocate the  parental  and  conservative  influence 
in  the  early  formation  both  of  opinions  and 
character,  but  we  do  not  advocate  a  degree  of 
restraint  which  destroys  freedom.  The  out- 
side influences  should  be  allowed  and  en- 
couraged for  the  very  purpose  of  preventing 
the  conservative,  household  influence  from 
becoming  too  strong.     Children  should  grow 


84  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

up  with  the  sense  of  freedom,  even  while  they 
are  directed,  and  although  encouraged  to 
adopt  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  should  not  be 
denied  the  opportunity  of  thinking  for  them- 
selves. They  should  be  allowed  to  hold 
familar  and  equal  intercourse  with  those 
who  are  taught  differently  from  themselves, 
and  their  religious  preferences  should  thus  be 
prevented  from  becoming  ignorant  and  unjust 
prejudice.  Such  is  the  intended  effect  of 
what  may  be  called  the  American  system  of 
education.  It  is  a  Christian  system,  because 
Christian  morality  is  its  basis,  and  the  validi- 
ty of  Christian  institutions  is  recognized.  It 
is  becoming  more  and  more  Christian,  I  think, 
because  higher  moral  attainments  are  daily 
required  from  those  who  become  teachers  of 
the  young.  In  former  times  the  intellectual 
competency  of  the  teacher  was  too  exclusively 
cared  for,  and  teachers  of  bad  habits  and  un- 
governable temper  were  employed.  But  the 
standard  of  character  and  of  moral  qualifica- 
tion is  becoming  higher  every  day.  This  is 
getting  to  be  understood  as  the  teacher's  most 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION.  85 

legitimate  moral  and  religious  influence,  and 
the  importance  of  making  it  a  silent,  but 
strong,  Christian  influence,  is  more  and  more 
clearly  discerned.  A  salutary  change  is  there 
fore  taking  place,  both  in  public  and  private 
schools,  by  which  a  better  moral  and  religious 
influence  upon  the  young  is  attained.  The 
ofiice  of  teacher  is  regarded  more  as  a  profes- 
sion, not  to  be  taken  up  for  a  few  years  as  a 
stepping-stone  to  something  else,  but  to  be 
adopted  as  the  business  of  life,  and  the  first 
qualification  insisted  upon  is  a  good  moral 
character.  I  can  remember  when  such  a 
question  would  hardly  have  been  asked. 
Habits  of  intemperance  and  profanity,  and 
other  moral  deficiencies,  were  winked  at,  and 
scholars  were  often  kept  under  demoralizing 
influences  without  any  thought  being  given 
to  the  subject.  There  is  yet  great  room  for 
improvement,  but  the  tendency  is  now  in  the 
right  direction.  While  sectarian  influence  is 
discouraged  or  forbidden,  more  attention  is 
given  to  the  general  moral  influence  exerted, 
and  the  foundation  of  the  religious  character 

8 


86  SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

is  thus  in  part  laid  by  those  who  are  not  al- 
lowed to  be  direct  teachers  of  religion.  It  is 
a  decided  Christian  influence  of  which  I  speak, 
and  upon  which  I  would  insist,  without  secta- 
rian bias.  If  the  teacher's  character  is  what 
it  ought  to  be,  the  whole  weight  of  his  au- 
thority will  be  given  in  favor  of  the  Christian 
virtues  and  graces,  and  by  their  submission 
to  him  and  respect  for  him  his  pupils  will  be 
continually  taught  the  great  practical  lesson 
of  life. 

But  does  not  this  silent  influence  of  the 
teacher's  character  involve  sectarian  not  less 
than  Christian  principles?  I  think  not.  The 
great  Christian  principles  of  faith  and  obedi- 
ence, or,  as  we  might  express  it,  the  principles 
of  religious  morality,  are  the  same  to  all  Chris- 
tian sects.  The  Beatitudes  belong  to  all  Chris- 
tian believers.  When  questions  of  practical 
goodness  are  proposed,  sectarianism  is  put  to 
silence.  Teachers  may  have,  and  ought  to 
have,  their  own  individual  opinions,  and  may 
therefore  belong  to  one  sect  or  another,  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION.  87 

but  the  judicious  teacher  may  instruct  for 
years  without  his  scholars  knowing  to  what 
sect  he  belongs.  He  need  not  know  at  what 
churches  they  are  taught  to  worship  on  the 
Lord's  day,  and  may  yet  be  helping  them  all 
to  attain  that  Christian  character  upon  which 
all  their  religious  teachers  insist.  The  young 
who  are  thus  brought  together  and  thus  treat- 
ed are  saved  from  narrow  prejudices,  by  their 
intercourse  with  each  other ;  and  they  learn  the 
great  practical  lesson,  that  opinions  may  differ 
among  those  whose  religious  principles  are 
the  same. 

The  whole  working  of  sectarian  schools  is 
in  contravention,  and  often  in  contradiction, 
to  this.  Under  whatever  name  they  are  estab- 
lished, they  must  proceed  upon  the  restricted 
and  separatist  principle  of  sect.  They  are 
Episcopal,  or  Methodist,  or  Catholic  schools, 
and  their  distinctive  sectarian  name  becomes 
to  their  pupils,  respectively,  the  representative 
idea  of  all  goodness  and  truth.  They  make 
youthful  bigots,  and  inculcate  religious  preju- 
dices, very  often  to  the  neglect  of  religious 
principle. 


88  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

The  more  I  see  of  them  in  their  practical 
working,  the  more  I  dislike  them.  They  may 
increase  sectarian  strength,  but  do  not  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  true  religion,  while  they  are 
a  sad  hinderance  to  the  cause  of  learning.  In 
the  latter  respect,  particularly,  they  are  to  be 
strongly  condemned.  They  do  not  make 
scholars,  nor  allow  men  to  become  such.  Try 
them  by  this  practical  test,  and  they  will  be 
found  wanting.  How  few  of  the  eminent  men 
of  this  country  were  educated  in  sectarian 
schools  I  Take  as  an  illustration  the  Jesuit 
colleges,  which  have  had  the  advantage  of 
large  means  and  of  learned  teachers,  so  far  as 
books  can  make  learned  men,  and  how  small 
a  number  of  their  Alumni  have  become  dis- 
tinguished in  any  department  of  science  or 
literature,  of  statesmanship  or  learning!  I 
believe  that  this  general  principle  may  be  laid 
down,  and  is  sustained  by  fact,  that,  in  this 
country  at  least,  the  seminaries  and  universi- 
ties which  have  allowed  the  least  sectarian  in- 
fluence have  uniformly  made  the  best  scholars. 
From  such  institutions  have  our  men  of  large 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION.  » 

minds  and  practical  ability  come.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  be  at  once  scientific  and  secta- 
rian, and  he  whose  mind  is  large  enough  to 
be  a  statesman  or  philosopher  cannot  easily  be 
a  bigot.  So  far  as  the  support  and  endow- 
ment of  schools  or  colleges  may  be  concerned, 
they  may  be  under  the  care  of  different  sects 
for  the  sake  of  securing  greater  unity  of  ad- 
ministration and  greater  energy  of  action. 
But  the  object  ought  not  to  be  sectarian,  and 
all  sectarian  influence  should  be  studiously 
excluded.  Let  the  foundation  be  as  broad  as 
Christianity  itself,  and  a  superstructure  can  be 
raised  thereupon  for  the  true  advancement  of 
science  and  learning,  for  the  full  development 
of  a  strong  and  manly  character,  and  at  the 
same  time  for  the  cherishing  of  Christian  vir- 
tue under  the  Christian  law. 

The  view  now  taken  of  this  subject  is 
strongly  confirmed  by  a  report  lately  present- 
ed to  the  New  York  Legislature,  in  the  case 
of  Columbia  College  of  that  State.  The 
charge  brought  against  the  institution  was 
that  of  sectarian  influence  in  the  election  of 

8* 


90  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

Professors,  and  was  substantially  proved.  But 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  wrong  was 
done,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  done, 
were  such  as  to  exempt  the  Trustees  from 
legal  prosecution,  and  the  decision  was  there- 
fore given,  according  to  the  letter  of  the  law, 
in  their  favor.  It  was  proved  that  they  had 
rejected  a  candidate  whom  they  would  other- 
wise have  gladly  received,  simply  and  solely 
because  of  his  obnoxious  religious  opinions. 
But  it  was  done  without  technical  violation 
of  their  charter,  and,  although  a  great  moral 
outrage,  could  not  be  treated  as  a  legal  of- 
fence. The  committee,  however,  by  whom 
the  investigation  was  made,  take  the  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  themselves  very  strongly 
against  all  sectarian  institutions  of  learning. 
They  denounce  all  sectarian  influence,  from 
whatever  direction  it  may  come,  as  injurious 
to  the  cause  of  education  and  to  the  real  pros- 
perity of  all  institutions  in  which  it  is  allowed. 
They  say :  — 

**  Indeed,  it  is  a  question  worthy  the  consideration  of 
the  statesman,  the  Christian,  and  the  scholar,  whether  our 


SCHOOL   EDUCATION.  91 

Beminaries  of  learning  and  colleges  throughout  the  State 
do  not  suffer  more  from  the  sectarian  character  that  is 
given  them,  or  is  assumed  by  them,  than  from  any  other 
cause,  and  whether  their  want  of  success  and  prosperity 
may  not  generally  be  attributed  to  the  sectarian  influences 
that  surround  them,  and  whether  there  is  any  way  by 
which  their  condition  can  be  improved,  except  by  becom- 
ing in  fact  what  they  are  in  theory,  free  from  all  sectarian 
control." 

Such  is  the  decision  of  experienced  and 
practical  men.  Institutions  of  learning  and 
science  must  be  surrounded  by  a  free  atmos- 
phere, or  the  mind  will  have  only  a  contracted 
and  imperfect  growth.  The  condition  of  free- 
dom is  indispensable  to  the  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge. Both  teacher  and  scholar  must  feel 
that  no  restraint  is  placed  upon  them,  except 
that  of  the  divine  law,  and  that  no  penalty, 
either  direct  or  indirect,  will  be  visited  on 
them  in  consequence  of  their  exercising  the 
freedom  which  God  has  given,  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  has  set  them  free.  Under 
no  other  circumstances  can  the  generous  love 
of  truth  for  its  own  sake  exist.  Under  no 
other  circumstances   can  the   youthful   mind 


92  SCHOOL    EDUCATION. 

and  character  receive  that  just  and  manly 
training  which  is  needed  to  make  scientific 
and  learned  men.  Subject  to  God  alone, 
is  the  motto  under  which  all  systems  of  school 
and  collegiate  education  should  be  conducted, 
and  under  no  other  will  the  mental  and  moral 
character  receive  its  best  development. 

Will  it  be  said  that  so  great  freedom  may 
result  in  the  rejection  of  Christianity  itself, 
and  of  all  religious  faith  ?  We  again  answer, 
No.  There  is  no  such  danger,  there  need  be 
no  such  fear.  Let  what  we  have  now  said  be 
kept  in  connection  with  what  has  been  urged 
upon  the  subject  of  home  education  and  the 
direct  religious  influence  of  the  Church,  and 
there  is  no  such  danger,  and  need  be  no  such 
fear.  That  early  religious  influence  will  be  a 
direction  to  the  mind  sufiiciently  decided,  and 
nothing  more  will  be  needful,  except  the  in- 
culcation of  Christian  morality  and  the  silent 
influence  of  Christian  teachers,  to  secure,  in 
almost  all  cases,  a  Christian  result.  There  is 
more  infidelity  created  by  the  constraints  and 
unfairness,  the  favoritisms  and  the  penalties. 


SCHOOL    EDUCATION.  98 

exercised  by  sectarian  institutions,  than  would 
result  from  the  greatest  degree  of  religious 
freedom  which,  under  Christian  teachers,  could 
possibly  be  allowed. 

For  let  it  be  still  observed,  that  it  is  only 
under  Christian  teachers  that  we  desire  this 
free  system  of  education  to  be  tried.  Give  as 
large  and  generous  interpretation  to  the  word 
Christian  as  any  reasonable  man  would  ask, 
and  make  allowance  for  all  latitude  of  opinion 
which  an  honest  man  would  claim  for  him- 
self, while  still  claiming  to  hold  the  Christian 
faith;  but  we  cannot  depart  from  the  funda- 
mental principle  already  laid  down,  namely, 
that  none  should  be  intrusted  with  the  care  of 
education  in  a  Christian  community,  except 
those  who  are,  in  general  terms.  Christian  be- 
lievers, and  above  the  average  standard  of 
Christian  demeanor.  So  far  as  they  teach 
morality,  by  precept  or  example,  it  should  be 
Christian  morality,  and  although  they  may 
seldom  speak  the  word  religion  or  name  the 
name  of  Christ,  their  scholars  will  breathe  a 
Christian  atmosphere,  and,  without  perceiving 


94  SCHOOL   EDUCATION. 

the  source  from  which  the  assistance  comes, 
will  be  aided  in  the  Christian  life.  We  would 
not  by  any  means  have  sectarian  schools,  but 
we  ought  to  require  that  the  Christian  influ- 
ence of  home  education  shall  not  be  destroyed. 
Let  school  education,  from  the  earliest  to  the 
latest  stage,  from  the  primary  school  to  the 
university,  be  conducted  on  such  principles, 
—  conservative  in  respect  to  Christian  faith 
and  character,  but  free  in  respect  to  sectarian 
doctrines  and  disputes,  —  and  we  should  have 
a  genuine  American  system,  properly  belong- 
ing to  a  free  country  which,  although  free,  is 
yet  a  part  of  Christendom.  We  should  thus 
secure  individual  freedom,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  do  all  that  we  properly  can  to  establish 
and  perpetuate  that  Christian  allegiance  which 
is  the  indispensable  condition  of  our  national 
prosperity. 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE    DIVINE    METHOD. 


We  proceed  now  to  a  different  part  of  my 
general  subject,  which  leads  to  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent direction  of  thought.  For,  in  the  be- 
ginning, I  proposed  to  myself  two  separate 
objects.  First,  to  show  the  importance  of 
early  religious  education,  and  the  necessity  of 
its  being  carefully  attended  to  by  parents,  as 
the  principal  education  of  their  children,  which 
cannot  be  safely  neglected  or  deferred.  My 
second  object  is  to  show  that  this  same  early 
religious  education,  when  wisely  conducted, 
and  especially  when  directed  at  home,  is  the 
most  efficient  and  the  divinely  appointed 
means  of  Christian  regeneration.  To  this 
point  I  have  alluded  from  time  to  time,  and 
my  belief  in  its  truth  is  my  justification,  if 


96  THE    DIVINE    METHOD. 

any  be  needed,  for  introducing  into  a  religious 
discussion  so  many  topics  which  are  generally 
treated  as  secular  interests. 

It  is  the  want  of  perceiving  this  divinely 
appointed  connection  between  education,  as  a 
work  committed  to  human  hands,  and  regen- 
eration, as  a  work  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  which 
has  brought  the  duty  of  early  religious  educa- 
tion into  comparative  neglect.  It  has  been 
considered  only  as  a  human  work,  with  refer- 
ence only  to  present  human  results,  and  as 
being  no  part  of  the  greater  spiritual  work, 
the  redemption  of  the  soul.  The  latter  has 
been  regarded  as  God's  department,  in  which 
human  agency  can  do  little  or  nothing.  A 
mystical  idea  of  religion,  of  regeneration  and 
redemption,  has  been  cherished,  by  which  they 
are  taken  out  of  all  ordinary  experience,  and 
put  beyond  all  human  control.  Parents  have 
therefore  learned  to  excuse  themselves  for  their 
neglect  of  moral  and  religious  education,  in 
the  vague,  but  irrational  hope,  that,  by  and 
by,  the  grace  of  God  will  make  it  all  right. 
They  see  their  children's  character  becoming 


THE    DIVINE    METHOD.  97 

very  different  from  what  it  ought  to  be,  under 
the  worldly  and  irreligious  influences  which 
surround  them,  but  they  regard  this  as  the 
natural  and  unavoidable  working  of  a  nature 
originally  corrupt,  nor  do  they  feel  responsible 
for  the  result.  Even  religious  parents  some- 
times look  upon  the  fatal  progress  without 
concern,  as  being  something  which  subsequent 
religious  experience  can  in  a  few  days  or  hours 
rectify. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  look  upon 
the  subject  more  rationally,  so  far  as  this 
world  is  concerned,  and  guard  the  moral  train- 
ing of  their  children  with  greater  care,  fail  to 
perceive  the  spiritual  efficacy  of  Christian  edu- 
cation. They  attend  to  it  only  as  a  worldly 
interest,  and  their  work  is  therefore  but  imper- 
fectly done. 

I  would  elevate,  if  I  could,  the  whole  idea 
of  education,  —  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  re- 
ligious education,  —  so  as  to  make  it  alto- 
gether a  true  Christian  nurture,  —  a  human 
agency,  indeed,  but  divinely  appointed,  —  the 
human  means  by  which  the  Divine  Spirit  can 


98  THE    DIVINE   METHOD. 

most  effectually  work.  The  redemption  of 
the  soul  from  sin  is  the  great  work  of  life,  and 
Christian  education  is  the  most  certain  means 
by  which  that  work  can  be  accomplished. 

I  do  not  question  the  Divine  power,  but 
nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  this,  that, 
in  all  the  working,  both  of  God's  providence 
and  of  his  grace,  he  not  only  employs  finite 
agencies  to  do  his  work,  but  uses  them  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  laws  which  he  has  made. 
This  is  true  of  the  spiritual  not  less  than  of 
the  natural  life.  The  Divine  action  is  not  a 
lawless  action,  not  arbitrary  or  eccentric,  but 
equal  and  just.  Under  all  theories  of  religion, 
however  mystical  they  may  be,  we  are  com- 
pelled into  this  conclusion,  that  human  means 
are  used  as  a  part  of  the  needful  means  in  the 
accomplishment  of  the  Divine  ends.  When- 
ever the  sinner  is  converted,  and  whenever  the 
religious  life  begins,  it  is  some  human  voice 
which  brings  the  message,  some  warning  of 
Scripture  heard,  some  influence  of  example, 
some  reawakening  of  earlier  thought  by  prov- 
idential events,  or  some  other  more  or  lesp 


THE   DIVINE   METHOD.  99 

directly  human  means,  by  which  the  divine, 
regenerating  influence  is  brought  to  bear. 
There  may  be  seeming  exceptions  to  this,  but 
I  doubt  if  any  real  exceptions  do,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  exist.  Even  Saul  of  Tarsus,  miracu- 
lously converted,  had  been  prepared  for  his 
great  v^ork  by  a  careful  religious  education, 
which  only  needed  the  purer  light  in  fitting 
him  to  become  the  Apostle  of  Christ.  A  man 
of  irreligious  education  and  immoral  life  could 
not  have  been  converted  into  the  Paul  who 
stood  before  Agrippa.  It  would  have  been  a 
violation  of  the  Divine  law,  a  radical  departure 
from  the  principles  of  spiritual  growth.  Even 
in  grafting  a  tree  to  change  the  quality  of  its 
fruit,  you  should  take  a  healthy  stock,  grow- 
ing in  the  right  soil,  and  a  suitable  climate, 
or  your  success  will  be  small. 

What  I  would  say,  therefore,  is  this,  and 
I  address  it  particularly  to  those  who  have 
been  accustomed  to  think  of  regeneration  as 
exclusively  a  divine  work.  I  acknowledge  it 
to  be  a  divine  work,  but,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
done  through  subordinate  agencies,  we  have  a 


100  THE   DIVINE   METHOD. 

right  to  suppose  that  it  will  be  best  done  when 
the  best  agencies  are  employed.  The  uncor- 
rupted  mind  can  be  brought  nearer  to  God 
than  that  which  has  been  debased  by  sin  and 
worldly  desire.  The  providential  influences 
by  which  we  are  surrounded  work  to  best  ad- 
vantage, and  all  the  ministrations  of  God's 
word,  and  all  the  silent  working  of  his  spirit, 
are  most  likely  to  be  effectual  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  designed  end,  if  the  heart 
has  been  prepared  for  them  and  educated  to 
receive  them  from  the  first. 

Even  admitting  the  doctrine  of  original  sin, 
by  which  the  soul  is  born  in  corruption,  we 
inay  still  reasonably  contend  that  the  soul's 
conversion  to  God  and  its  renewal  in  the 
Divine  image  may  be  more  easily  and  more 
effectually  attained  before  the  additional  bur- 
den of  actual  sin  and  personal  transgression 
has  been  placed  upon  it  Or,  in  other  words, 
the  earlier  the  regenerating  influence  is  brought 
into  action,  the  better  will  the  work  be  done. 
The  earliest  means  employed  are  the  most 
likely  to   be   effectual,   and   the   best  means 


THE   DIVINE   METHOD.  101 

which  can  be  employed  are  parental  influence 
and  home  education,  aided  by  whatever  exter- 
nal influences  the  ministrations  of  religion  can 
supply.  Upon  such  means  the  blessing  of 
God  is  most  likely  to  rest,  and  by  such  agen- 
cy is  the  Divine  Spirit  most  likely  to  work. 
Take  almost  what  theory  of  religion  you 
please,  and  unless  we  deliberately  discard  all 
the  teaching  of  common  sense  and  experience, 
we  shall  look  to  the  early  education  of  the 
young  as  the  principal  and  most  certain 
means  of  their  salvation. 

Yet  it  is  not  to  be  concealed  that  a  great 
deal  of  the  pulpit  preaching  and  religious  in- 
struction of  the  day  presents  a  different  view, 
and  undervalues  the  importance  of  the  early 
religious  training  of  which  I  speak.  It  is 
sometimes  held  up  to  suspicion,  as  if  it  were 
the  preaching  of  morality  instead  of  religion, 
of  human  agencies  instead  of  the  Divine 
Spirit.  They  who  grow  up  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  and  who  have 
been  Christians  in  faith  and  practice  from 
early  childhood,  are  held  to  be  less  certain  of 


102  THE   DIVINB    METHOD. 

genuine  conversion  than  those  who  have  been 
steeped  in  guilt,  and  literally  the  enemies  of 
God,  up  to  the  time  of  the  tremendous  con- 
flict with  which  a  new  life  begins.  The  long- 
continued  iniquity  which  makes  so  great 
change  needful,  takes  almost  a  meritorious 
place  in  the  narrated  experience,  and  those 
whose  earlier  life  has  been  such  as  to  prevent 
the  necessity  of  violent  conversion,  are  held  to 
be  self-righteous  moralists  and  doubtful  con- 
verts. Many  a  quiet  heart,  which  has  always 
reposed  in  God  and  always  borne  the  cross  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  spirit  of  self-denial  and 
prayer,  has  been  disturbed  with  misgivings 
and  fear  by  such  preaching  as  this.  Many  a 
true  believer  has  been  almost  shaken  from 
the  Christian  faith,  by  being  taught  the  neces- 
sity of  a  change  which  has  been  long  ago  in 
early  life  experienced,  and  of  which  the  practi- 
cal fruits  have  been  through  a  long  life  mani- 
fested, but  which  cannot,  as  a  genuine  expe- 
rience, be  felt  again. 

Still  worse,  and  as  the  result  of  the  same 
wrong  instruction,   there  are  many  who  are 


THE   DIVINE   METHOD.  103 

betrayed  into  neglecting  the  religious  educa- 
tion of  their  children,  and  there  are  many 
young  persons  who  indulge  themselves  in 
continued  habits  of  sin,  because  they  think 
that  a  divine  working,  more  mighty  than  hu- 
man means,  will  interpose,  and  by  a  strong 
and  outstretched  arm  save  them  from  ruin. 
A  sad  and  we  might  almost  say  fatal  delu- 
sion ;  for  even  if  that  day  of  deliverance  comes, 
the  scars  of  former  sins  will  remain,  and  the 
redemption,  even  if  effectual,  will  be  "  so  as 
by  fire."  The  laws  of  our  spiritual  nature 
cannot  be  disregarded  with  impunity,  and  it 
is  of  children  that  it  was  most  expressly  said, 
when  they  were  brought  to  Jesus,  "  Of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Ask  the  convert 
himself,  and,  if  he  is  a  sincere  man,  he  will 
confess  that  all  his  repentance,  and  all  the 
operating  grace  of  God,  have  not  removed  the 
bad  consequences  of  youthful  sin.  He  would 
give  worlds  to  live  over  again  those  wasted 
years  of  early  life,  to  do  then  effectually  what 
he  is  now  striving  to  do  with  agony  and  tears. 
Give  me,  then,  early  religious  education  as 


104  THE   DIVINE   METHOD. 

the  best  and  divinely  appointed  means  of  the 
Christian,  which  is  the  Regenerate,  life.  Child- 
hood and  youth  is  the  season  when  all  educa- 
tion, intellectual,  moral,  and  religious,  is  most 
successfully  given,  and  by  planting  good  Chris- 
tian seed  in  the  heart,  no  room  will  be  left  for 
the  pernicious  weeds  of  iniquity  to  grow. 

Yet  I  read,  only  yesterday,  in  a  religious 
publication,  an  account  of  a  man  who  went 
into  a  prayer-meeting,  being  at  the  time  past 
middle  life,  and  who,  after  listening  for  a 
while,  rose  in  his  place,  and  said,  that  he  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  as  bad  a  man  as  ever 
lived ;  that  he  had  been  in  all  parts  of  the 
world,  and  practised  the  worst  iniquities  of 
every  place,  but  that  his  conscience  was  now 
troubled,  and  he  wished  to  be  prayed  for. 
Ten  or  fifteen  minutes  were  accordingly  spent 
in  prayer,  and  he  then  rose  and  said  that  all 
tears  were  washed  from  his  eyes,  and  the  bur- 
den of  sin  taken  from  his  heart.  He  received 
the  congratulations  of  the  assembly,  and  all 
united  in  thanksgiving  for  the  redemption  of 
his  soul. 


THE    DIVINE    METHOD.  105 

Not  SO  was  John  Bunyan's  pilgrim  rescued, 
who  spent  days  and  nights  in  the  struggle  and 
the  conflict,  before  the  burden  of  his  past  sin 
fell  off,  and  who  then  felt  the  necessity  of  still 
contending  and  pressing  forward,  as  if  the 
avenger  were  behind  him,  for  the  attainment 
of  the  prize. 

The  man  may  have  been  honest  in  his 
words,  and  his  conviction  of  sin  may  have 
been  sincere.  But  who  among  those  who 
gave  thanks  for  his  redemption  would  have 
trusted  him  the  next  day?  They  would  re- 
quire weeks  and  months,  nay,  years,  of  trial, 
before  they  would  confide  to  him  the  keeping 
of  the  charity  purse ;  but  one  hour's  religious 
experience  is  enough  for  the  redemption  of  his 
soul !  It  would  seem  that  common  sense  can 
be  used  everywhere  but  in  religion,  and  men 
are  wiser  when  they  act  as  children  of  this 
generation  than  when  they  act  as  children  of 
light.  I  would  not  speak  disparagingly  of  the 
efforts  to  save  the  sinner,  however  hardened  he 
may  be.  Nor  would  I  withhold  from  him 
whatever    encouragement    may    properly   be 


106  THE   DITINE   METHOD. 

given.  His  case  is  not  hopeless,  however  bad. 
He  may  yet  turn,  and,  by  resolute  effort  re- 
deeming the  time,  save  himself  from  the  evil 
which  impends.  But  I  only  say,  that  it  would 
have  been  better  for  him  to  have  been  saved 
from  his  wanderings,  and  that  it  is  more  safe 
to  trust  in  the  religion  of  those  to  whom  it 
comes  in  the  unobserved,  but  effectual,  expe- 
rience of  early  life.  The  religious  character 
formed  by  early  education,  is  stronger  and 
better  than  that  which  becomes  good  only  by 
conversion.  Considered  as  an  education  for 
practical  life,  it  is  far  better  and  more  worthy 
of  reliance.  Considered  as  the  Christian  re- 
generation, it  is  far  more  perfect,  and  is  at 
least  equally  the  work  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 
Revivals  of  religion  may  sometimes  be  good, 
and  are  often  blessed  in  the  conversion  of 
wicked  men;  but  to  educate  the  young  by 
bringing  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admo- 
nition of  the  Lord,  is  a  work  still  more  blessed 
and  more  sure  of  success.  The  preacher's 
voice  may  alarm  the  indifferent,  —  "  Awake, 
thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead, 


THE   DIVINE   METHOD.  107 

and  Christ  shall  give  you  light";  but  the 
sweet  voice  of  maternal  love  is  still  more  elo- 
quent, and  the  gentle  influences  of  a  Christian 
home  are  a  stronger  instrumentality  by  which 
the  Heavenly  Father  draws  us  into  the  fold  of 
Christ.  In  one  word,  Christian  education 
is  the  great  means  by  which,  under  the  grace 
of  God,  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  must  be 
established,  both  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  For 
myself,  I  thank  God  for  this  more  than  for  all 
other  blessings,  that  my  childhood  was  passed 
in  a  Christian  home.  Most  gratefully  do  I 
here  acknowledge  the  obligation  to  faithful, 
religious  parents,  by  whose  instruction,  of 
example  more  than  of  precept,  the  love  of  God 
seemed  a  natural  affection,  and  obedience  to 
the  law  of  Christ  was  the  common  law  of  the 
household;  —  an  obligation  which  cannot  be 
repaid  ;  but  their  children  rise  up  to  call  them 
and  their  memory  blessed. 

The  earnestness  with  which  I  have  spoken, 
and  the  frequent  repetition  of  the  same  leading 
idea,  may  have  seemed  unnecessary  and  tire- 
some.    But  I  believe  that  no  subject,  either  of 


108  THE   DIVINE   METHOD. 

temporal  or  spiritual  interest,  is  more  important 
than  that  which  we  have  now  been  consider- 
ing. There  is  no  subject  upon  which  greater 
or  more  fatal  mistakes  are  committed.  They 
are  fatal  to  the  welfare  of  our  children,  and 
therefore  to  our  own  happiness.  They  hinder 
the  prosperity  of  our  churches,  and  prevent 
their  growth.  They  give  to  all  education  a 
worldly  and  irreligious  tone,  by  reason  of 
which  intellectual  culture  produces  alienation 
from  God.  The  one  thing  needful  in  the 
Christian  Church,  for  its  true  revival,  for  the 
effectual  renewal  of  its  spiritual  power,  I  firm- 
ly believe  to  be  this  of  which  I  have  now  so 
earnestly  spoken,  and  of  which,  if  I  had  the 
power,  I  would  yet  more  earnestly  speak.  It 
is  the  judicious  attention  to  the  young,  the 
Christian  education  by  which  they  may  grow 
up  in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God.  In  an 
age  when  all  intellectual  influences  are  so 
active,  and  the  youthful  mind  is  so  rapidly 
developed  and  the  youthful  character  so  early 
formed,  religious  influences  must  be  made 
equally  active,  so  as  to  give  a  heavenly  direc- 


THE    DIVINE    METHOD.  109 

tion  to  all.  The  Christian  principles  and  faith 
must  work  with  the  development  of  the  earli- 
est affections,  and  the  family  circle  become 
the  household  church  of  Christ.  '^  Feed  my 
lambs,"  is  the  word  of  Christ's  comuiandment, 
to  which  his  ministers  should  now  give  most 
earnest  heed.  Their  most  eloquent  preaching 
will  do  little  good,,  unless  the  youthful  ear  is 
reached.  The  churches  of  the  land,  however 
magnificent,  will  fall  into  contempt,  unless 
youthful  hands  are  laid  upon  the  altar,  and 
out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  must 
the  praise  be  perfected. 

In  other  countries  where  religious  institu- 
tions are  maintained  by  law,  and  a  strong 
religious  conservatism  is  thus  exercised,  the 
young  might  be  neglected  with  comparative 
safety.  But  with  us  everything  depends  upon 
them.  The  conservative  principle  must  be 
planted  in  their  hearts,  or  their  precocious  lib- 
erty will  be  used  as  a  cloak  of  lawlessness. 
Religious  faith  must  be  made  one  of  their 
earliest  instincts,  the  law  of  their  moral  and 
intellectual  life.     The  mother  must  therefore 

10 


110  THE  DIVINE   METHOD. 

be  the  teacher  of  religion,  and  the  nursery  be- 
come the  sphere  of  religious  instruction.  The 
parental  relation  should  be  recognized  as  a 
religious  guardianship,  and  the  father's  voice 
should  teach  the  lesson  of  reverence  towards 
God. 

Then  would  the  cause  of  religion  begin  to 
prosper.  Then  would  our  churches  be  filled 
with  sincere  worshippers.  Then  would  the 
formality  of  religion  cease,  and  its  spiritual, 
which  is  its  practical  life,  appear.  For  then 
would  our  young  men  become  our  religious 
men,  and  our  daughters  would  grow  up  to 
become,  in  their  youth  and  beauty,  as  the 
polished  columns  in  the  temple  of  God. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

We  come  then  to  this  serious  and  almost 
startling  result.  The  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
child  depends  upon  the  parent.  Our  chil- 
dren enter  upon  an  inheritance  of  good  or 
evil  influences,  by  which  their  moral  and  re- 
ligious character  is  determined.  Exceptional 
cases  occur;  but  after  we  have  made  the 
most  liberal  estimate  of  them  that  facts 
justify,  the  rule  still  remains.  The  religious 
history  of  families  and  of  communities  may 
thus  be  traced,  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other, with  small  danger  of  mistake.  The 
child  must  possess  unusual  energy  of  will, 
or  must  be  favored  by  unusual  providential 
circumstances,  to  escape  from  becoming  irre- 
ligious under  the  influence  of  an  irreligious 


112  PABBNTAL   BESPONSIBILITY. 

home.  The  sins  of  the  paient  are,  in  this 
sense,  visited  upon  the  children.  But  when 
a  Christian  spirit  pervades  the  household, 
the  children  breathe  it  and  grow  up  in  the 
Christian  life.  If  I  am  stating  this  too 
strongly,  let  proper  abatement  be  made,  and 
there  will  still  be  left  unquestioned  enough 
to  sustain  me  in  my  present  argument. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  parents  owe  a 
duty  to  their  children,  which  should  engage 
their  most  earnest  and  prayerful  attention. 
It  is  not  only  to  feed  and  clothe  them,  and  to 
provide  for  them  the  physical  comforts  which 
they  need.  To  this  the  parent  is  prompt- 
ed by  the  instinctive  love  of  his  offspring, 
and  its  intentional  neglect  would  place  him 
lower  than  the  brute.  Nor  is  it  only  to 
select  good  teachers  and  schools  for  intel- 
lectual culture,  considered  as  a  preparation 
for  active  and  honorable  usefulness  in  the 
world;  for  this  would  be  our  duty,  as  par- 
ents, even  if  we  had  no  religion  and  no 
hope  in  Christ.  The  obligation  imposed 
upon    us    by    the    parental    relationship    is 


PARENTAL   RESPONSIBILITY.  113 

higher  and  more  sacred  than  anything  that 
belongs  to  physical  comfort  or  v/orldly  suc- 
cess. It  is  to  form  the  character  of  our 
children  in  the  religious  life  ;  to  bring  them 
into  the  fold  of  the  Redeemer ;  to  educate 
them  as  the  children  of  God.  They  are  in- 
trusted to  us,  not  only  for  time,  but  eter- 
nity ;  and  it  is  our  first  and  principal  duty 
to  lead  them  to  that  spiritual,  regenerate 
life,  which  is  the  life  with  God,  whether  on 
earth  or  in  heaven.  Such  is  the  parent's 
duty,  under  the  providential  appointment  of 
God,  to  which  all  other  parental  duties  are 
secondary  and  comparatively  unimportant. 
Education  in  the  Christian  faith  and  Chris- 
tian virtue  is  the  one  great  end  to  be  at- 
tained. 

But  how  different  is  this  from  the  com- 
mon current  of  thought  and  action  !  When 
we  speak  of  a  good  education,  the  ideas 
first  suggested  are  those  of  science  and  art, 
of  literature  and  languages  and  accomplish- 
ments. If  we  speak  of  the  Christian  graces, 
the  more  excellent  way  of  Faith,  Hope,  and 


114  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

Charity,  we  are  understood  to  have  intro- 
duced an  entirely  different  subject.  Such 
things  scarcely  belong  to  the  popular  idea 
of  a  good  education.  The  attainment  of 
knowledge,  the  cultivation  of  taste,  refine- 
ment of  manners,  and  the  like,  become,  even 
with  parents,  the  prominent,  if  not  the  ulti- 
mate, thought  in  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren. And  for  the  attainment  of  these,  what 
terrible  risks  do  they  incur,  and  to  how 
many  fatal  dangers  is  the  youthful  charac- 
ter exposed !  For  the  sake  of  an  "  accom- 
plishment," perhaps,  the  influence  of  immoral 
and  vulgar  teachers  is  allowed.  The  perils 
of  the  boarding-school  are  paid  for,  in  pur- 
suit of  a  fashionable  education.  Protestants 
place  their  children  in  convents  and  Jesuit 
colleges,  with  the  reasonable  probability  that 
their  religious  faith  will  be  undermined  or 
perverted,  because  of  some  supposed  advan- 
tages in  learning  the  modern  languages,  or  in 
gaining  superficial  accomplishments.  Boys 
and  girls  are  sent  hundreds  of  miles  away 
from   home,   at  an    age   when    the    need    of 


PARENTAL   RESPONSIBILITY.  115 

parental  guidance  is  the  greatest,  and  are 
kept  for  years  under  the  influence  of  tempta- 
tions which  mature  virtue  could  scarcely  re- 
sist, and  at  the  same  time  are  liberally  sup- 
plied with  money,  as  if  to  facilitate  their 
ruin.  Is  it  not  a  perverted  idea  of  edu- 
cation which  leads  to  such  mistakes  as 
these  ?  It  is  the  placing  knowledge  above 
virtue,  manners  above  morals,  intellectual  at- 
tainments above  religion.  Why  can  we  not 
perceive,  that  the  highest  intellectual  culture 
is  no  compensation  for  the  loss  of  virtue ; 
that  those  who  fail  in  the  attainment  of 
Christian  faith,  and  are  betrayed  into  de- 
parture from  Christian  principles,  are  misera- 
bly educated,  either  as  men  or  women,  let 
their  intellectual  attainments  be  what  they 
may.  Looking  to  this  life  only,  the  right 
education  of  character  is  a  thousand  times 
more  important  than  the  attainment  of 
knowledge ;  for  the  uneducated  man,  with 
good  common  sense  and  sound  principles, 
is  worth  more,  even  for  the  common  pur- 
poses of  worldly   life,  and  is   more  worthy 


116  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

of  respect,  and  by  simple  manliness  of  char- 
acter will  accomplish  more,  than  the  most 
finished  scholar,  who  has  gained  his  educa- 
tion at  the  expense  of  his  principles.  But 
when  we  remember,  that  the  use  of  this 
present  life  is  to  prepare  us,  by  the  service 
of  God,  for  a  life  of  eternal  service  in  heaven, 
we  discern,  almost  with  trembling,  the  great- 
ness of  our  folly,  in  placing  the  intellectual 
above  the  moral  and  religious  education  of 
the  young.  Let  parents  see  to  this,  with 
serious  and  prayerful  thought,  or  they  may 
be  doing  to  their  children  the  greatest  harm, 
when  they  are  seeking  to  do  them  good. 
Let  everything  be  made  to  give  way  to 
that  one  great  work  to  be  accomplished, — 
to  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admo- 
nition of  the  Lord.  I  know  that  it  would 
be  a  revolution  in  the  common  plans  of 
educating  the  young,  but  such  a  revolution 
is  needed.  I  would  not  lower  the  standard 
of  intellectual  education,  but  would  only 
place  that  first  which  ought  to  stand  first, 
—  Christian  virtue  and   Christian  truth. 


PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  117 

Let  me  also  again  say,  although  in  repe- 
tition, that,  in  this  view,  the  most  important 
part  of  all  education  is  done  by  parents 
themselves.  Whether  they  know  it  or  not, 
they  are  doing  it.  It  cannot  be  delegated 
to  others,  any  more  than  the  relation  of 
parent  and  child  can  be  changed.  The 
great  majority  of  religious  men  and  women, 
however  different  the  influences  under  which 
they  may  have  been  educated,  trace  back 
the  sources  of  their  religious  life  to  a  pious 
mother  or  father.  It  is  the  want  of  that 
early  influence  which  fills  the  world  with 
scepticism  and  guilt.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
those  whose  early  training  has  been  good, 
and  who  have  received  from  their  parents 
an  education  which  ought  to  have  resulted 
in  a  Christian  life,  make  shipwreck  of  their 
faith,  and  go  astray  in  the  paths  of  in- 
iquity. But  there  is  always  great  hope  of 
their  return,  if  those  early  principles  of  right 
were  deeply  implanted.  Very  often  it  proves 
with  them  only  a  temporary  wandering,  and 
the  prayers  of  the  mother's  heart  are  at  length 


118  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

answered.  But  if  they  have  grown  up  to 
worldliness  and  irreligion  and  consequent 
wrong-doing,  as  their  natural  progress,  under 
the  influence  of  an  irreligious  home,  the  hope 
of  their  redemption  must  be,  and  it  is  proved 
by  observation  to  be,  very  small.  Their  early 
habits  of  sin  and  worldliness  become  their 
nature,  which  refuses  to  be  changed. 

How  great,  then,  is  the  responsibility  of 
parents !  How  effectually  do  they  stand  be- 
tween their  children  and  God,  to  separate 
them  from  him  by  the  repulsion  of  an  irre- 
ligious character,  or  to  bring  them  near  to 
him  by  the  gentle  influence  of  obedience  and 
faith  I  It  is  a  responsibility  of  which  we 
may  well  think  with  awe.  We  must  an- 
swer before  God,  not  only  for  ourselves, 
but  for  the  children  whom  God  giveth  to 
us.  We  are  their  providential  guardians, 
and  God  will  require  them  at  our  hands. 
We  may,  indeed,  fail  in  our  efforts,  and 
circumstances  beyond  our  control  may  de- 
feat our  best  endeavors.  But,  up  to  the 
point  of  doing  the  best  we  can,  both  by  pre- 


PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  119 

cept  and  example,  we  are  undoubtedly  re- 
sponsible for  the  result.  An  almost  com- 
manding influence  belongs  to  us,  and  we 
are  bound  to  use  it  well,  both  by  the  love 
which  we  bear  to  our  children,  and  by  the 
allegiance  that  we  owe  to  God.  We  may 
shrink  from  admitting  the  fact,  or  try  to  lose 
sight  of  it,  but  the  providential  arrangement 
under  which  we  are  appointed  to  live  and 
work  cannot  be  changed. 

One  thing,  however,  may  be  said,  to  en- 
courage us  under  the  feeling  of  insufficiency, 
and  to  make  that  which  may  seem  a  burden 
of  responsibility  supportable.  A  distinct  rec- 
ognition of  our  duty,  and  a  humble,  prayer- 
ful desire  to  do  it,  almost  insures  its  faithful 
performance.  Carelessness  is  generally  the 
cause  of  failure,  and  not  incompetency.  If 
we  feel  the  responsibility  imposed  upon  us 
by  the  parental  relation  as  we  ought,  our 
mistakes  will  correct  themselves,  and  the 
spirit  in  which  we  try  to  perform  our  duty 
will  save  our  children  from  the  worst  effect, 
both  of  our  errors  and  our  faults.     Children 


120  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

see  very  quickly,  and  are  better  judges  of  our 
real  character  than  we  suppose.  They  learn 
more  from  what  we  are,  than  from  what  we 
say,  and  can  discern,  underneath  our  mis- 
takes of  management,  the  religious  and  loving 
spirit  in  which  we  are  trying  to  work.  Or, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  will  discern  the  self- 
ish and  worldly  temper  of  the  parent,  where 
it  exists,  however  carefully  it  may  be  covered 
over  by  the  usual  proprieties  of  life.  It  is 
the  spirit,  therefore,  in  which  we  work,  more 
than  our  skill  in  working,  that  insures  suc- 
cess. The  conscientious  endeavor  seldom 
fails.  We  may  be  able  to  give  no  rule  for 
domestic  government,  and  may  have  no  the- 
ory of  discipline,  and  yet,  as  each  case  of 
difficulty  occurs,  a  sincere  purpose  will  find 
its  own  way  of  action.  Speaking  from  my 
own  experience,  indeed,  I  am  afraid  of  the- 
ories of  domestic  education,  and  would  rather 
leave  the  details  of  government  to  the  con- 
scientious parent,  than  impose  upon  him  the 
best  system  that  can  be  devised.  General 
principles  may  be  urged,  but  individual  com 


PARENTAL   RESPONSIBILITY.  121 

mon  sense  must  be  left  to  apply  them.  The 
one  great  and  indispensable  requisite  for 
exerting  a  right  religious  influence  on  our 
children,  is  the  possession  of  a  right  relig- 
ious character  ourselves.  To  obtain  this  is 
the  beginning,  and  almost  the  end,  of  our 
work,  in  the  religious  education  of  the  young. 
Parents  who  are  conscious  to  themselves  of 
a  worldly  and  irreligious  character  may  well 
shrink  from  the  responsibility  which  they 
have  assumed.  If  not  for  their  own  sake, 
yet  for  the  sake  of  their  children,  they  should 
cultivate  in  themselves  a  higher  life,  with 
prayer  and  supplication,  as  the  only  means 
of  performing  the  most  sacred  and  important 
duty  of  their  lives.  To  young  parents,  es- 
pecially, this  truth  needs  to  be  plainly  pre- 
sented. They  enter  upon  a  new  world,  both 
of  care  and  enjoyment,  while  they  watch  the 
unfolding  of  the  infant's  mind.  They  ask  ad- 
vice concerning  its  management,  and  fondly 
hope  to  keep  it,  in  its  growing  years,  from 
temptation  and  guilt.  They  feel  ready  to 
make  almost  any  sacrifice  of  money  and  of 


122  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

comfort,  to  secure  this  result.  But  there  is 
only  one  way,  humanly  speaking,  to  secure 
It,  —  which  is,  by  themselves  learning  to  live 
a  religious  life.  In  proportion  as.they  attain 
this  excellence,  the  difficulties  of  their  task 
will  disappear.  Let  them  begin  their  married 
life  by  consecrating  themselves  to  God,  and 
their  home  will  become,  almost  of  its  own 
accord,  a  nursery  of  goodness  and  truth. 
But  unless  they  care  enough  about  religion 
to  do  this,  they  should  prepare  themselves 
to  be  disappointed  in  their  children.  They 
have  no  right  to  expect  that  those  who  are 
led,  will  go  in  advance  of  their  leaders. 
They  have  no  right  to  require  of  their  chil- 
dren a  higher  standard  of  virtue  and  relig- 
ion than  that  according  to  which  they  them- 
selves live. 

One  general  rule  for  the  guidance  of  the 
young  in  the  religious  life,  I  would  venture 
to  give ;  partly  because  of  its  importance, 
and  partly  because  of  its  frequent  neglect. 
They  must  be  taught  obedience.  Few  com- 
mands  of  Scripture    are  more  earnestly  en- 


PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  123 

joined  than  this,  —  "  Children,  obey  your  par- 
ents in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right."  "  Honor 
thy  father  and  thy  mother,"  is  one  of  the 
leading  commandments  of  the  Bible.  It  lies, 
I  believe,  at  the  root  of  the  religious  life. 
It  is,  I  had  almost  said,  the  only  founda- 
tion on  which  the  religious  character  of  the 
young  can  be  established.  Our  word  piety^ 
by  its  derivation,  means  filial  reverence,  and 
the  ideas  are  so  closely  associated  that  we 
can  hardly  separate  them  from  each  other. 
It  is  an  easy  transition  from  filial  respect 
to  religious  awe.  Children  who  have  been 
early  taught  the  lesson  of  obedience  to  their 
parents,  can  easily  learn  the  higher  lesson 
of  obedience  to  God.  It  is,  in  both  cases, 
the  respectful  and  reverential  submission  to 
authority,  under  the  sense  of  duty.  By  the 
early  and  judicious  exercise  of  such  author- 
ity, children  are  taught  those  lessons  of  self- 
denial  and  self-control,  of  reverence  and 
trust,  which  are  so  good  a  preparation  for 
their  willing  self-consecration  to  God.  They 
may  be  thus   saved,  in   part   at  least,  from 


124  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

the  waywardness  and  presumptuous  self- 
conceit  which  betray  so  many  young  per- 
sons into  thinking  that  they  can  be  guides 
to  themselves,  without  the  restraining  power 
of  religious  faith. 

I  do  not  advocate  sternness  or  severity 
in  domestic  discipline.  In  a  well-governed 
family,  no  iron  rule  is  needed,  and  punish- 
ment, of  whatever  kind,  is  a  rare  occurrence. 
But  it  is  almost  the  parent's  first  duty,  in 
the  moral  education  of  his  children,  to  in- 
stil the  idea  and  enforce  the  duty  of  obe- 
dience. With  gentleness,  but  promptly  and 
with  decision,  a  right  beginning  should  be 
thus  made,  and  the  principle  of  parental 
control  established.  At  first  it  is,  of  course, 
an  unreasoning  or  instinctive  submission,  on 
the  part  of  the  child,  to  the  stronger  will  of 
the  parent,  and  cannot  be  called  a  moral 
act.  But  gradually,  as  the  infant  mind  is 
developed,  a  higher  principle  is  introduced, 
and  the  instinctive  habit  of  obedience  be- 
comes a  willing  and  affectionate  perform- 
ance of  duty.     The  child  who   has  received 


PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  125 

such  training  from  a  religious  parent  soon 
learns  to  feel  that  the  great  source  of  all 
authority  is  in  the  Divine  law,  and,  by  an 
almost  natural  progress,  his  filial  obedience 
is  changed  to  the  service  of  God.  The  rec- 
ognition of  authority,  and  the  habit  of  re- 
spectful, deferential  obedience  to  those  who 
have  a  right  to  exercise  authority,  are  in- 
dispensable elements  in  the  religious  char- 
acter. 

I  apprehend,  that  a  great  deal  of  the 
neglect  of  religion  among  the  young  is  ex- 
plained by  the  neglect  of  their  parents  to 
teach  them  this  early  lesson  of  obedience. 
It  may  seem  to  be  a  small  matter,  at  first, 
which  parental  indulgence  overlooks  or  ex- 
cuses, in  the  indolent  expectation  that  time 
will  make  it  right.  But  those  children  are 
saved  from  a  world  of  trouble,  whose  par- 
ents have  the  practical  good  sense  to  di- 
rect them,  from  the  very  first,  in  the  right 
way.  What  can  we  expect  from  the  young 
who  are  allowed  to  rebel  against  parental 
authority,   and  refuse   obedience   to   the    pa- 


126  PARENTAL   EESPONSIBILITY. 

rental  command,  but  wilfulness,  and  passion- 
ate self-indulgence,  and  rebellion  against  God 
himself?  The  parent  is  appointed  by  God 
to  think  for  his  children  and  direct  them, 
and  in  doing  so  it  is  his  bounden  duty  to 
require  their  obedience  until  they  can  think 
maturely  for  themselves ;  and  if  he  neglects 
to  do  this,  either  through  indolence  or  any 
other  motive,  it  is  at  the  serious  peril,  both 
temporal  and  spiritual,  of  the  child.  But 
I  fear  that  it  is  one  of  the  great  defects  in 
our  modern  theories  of  domestic  education, 
that  the  views  of  discipline  are  held  so 
loosely,  that  the  child  governs  the  parent, 
instead  of  the  parent's  governing  the  child. 
The  idea  of  authority  is  almost  discarded, 
and  children  are  left,  both  in  religion  and 
morals,  to  choose  for  themselves. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  take  pains  to  ex- 
press, with  greater  plainness,  one  thought 
which  has  been  continually  present  to  my 
own  mind,  and  without  which  all  that  I 
have  said  is  untrue.  "  Except  the  Lord  build 
the  house,  they  labor  in   vain  that  build  it. 


PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY.  127 

Except  the  Lord  keep  the  city "  —  and  the 
family,  —  "  the  watchman  waketh  but  in  vain." 
Paul  may  plant  and  Apollos  may  water,  but 
it  is  God  who  giveth  the  increase.     We  must 
labor,   in   this   work   of  religious   education, 
with  a  religious  spirit.     It  must  be  done  by 
human   agency,  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  di- 
vine work.    "  No  one  cometh  to  me,"  said  the 
Saviour,  "  except  the  Father  draw  him  " ;  and 
it   is   true,   I  believe,   of  the   child,  not   less 
than  of  the  man.     It  is    not    a   mechanical 
work,  by    machinery,  in    which   we    are   en- 
gaged,   but   a   spiritual   work,    for    those    in 
whom    God    himself  w^orketh,   both   to   will 
and   to   do.     We  must  be  workers  together 
with   him,  and  a  part  of  our   agency  must 
be  prayer.     There  is  no  element  of  success, 
in   the   religious   education   of  our   children, 
more    important    than    this    habitual    feeling 
of   absolute    reliance    upon    God.      He    does 
not  work  wisely  who  works  presumptuously, 
and  if  we  think  to  command  success,  a  wrong 
spirit  enters  into  the  work,  so   that   we  in- 
vite  disappointment.     In    all  moral   and   re- 


128  PARENTAL    RESPONSIBILITY. 

ligious  enterprises,  and  especially  in  our  care 
of  the  young,  everything  depends  on  the 
spirit  with  which  we  act.  But  if,  together 
with  the  judicious  use  of  means,  we  labor  to 
accomplish  a  Christian  end,  with  a  prayer- 
ful and  Christian  spirit,  in  the  service  of 
God,  our  labor  will  not  be  in  vain. 


THE   END. 


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